In 2006, I wrote The War Against Black Women and The Making of?NO!” which was published in?Color Violence: The INCITE! Anthology. While the essay specifically focuses on intra-racial rape and other forms of sexual violence perpetuated against Black women in Black communities, there are many similarities to domestic violence. It is deeply disturbing that so many Black people are justifiably outraged about the relentless forms of white supremacist violence perpetuated against Black men. And yet, when it comes to male supremacist violence against Black women, many of those same folks (men AND woman) who understand racism/white supremacy can?t get comprehend/get a handle on misogyny/sexism/patriarchy. #WTF

EXCERPT: What I find most interesting is that too many Black men, male-identified Black women, and progressive anti-racist White people, are unable to step outside the awful reality of many Black men’s lives to see and hear the physical, emotional, psychological, and psychic pain that Black women experience at both the hands of institutional White racism and at the hands of Black men, who are their fathers, brothers, uncles, cousins, husbands, boyfriends, comrades, and friends. Fortunately, I’ve never been beat by the police, and I’ve never been incarcerated. However, whenever I hear a story about a Black man being beat or murdered by the police or about a Black man unjustly incarcerated, I am not only enraged, I am called to action. In my ongoing conversations with many of my Diasporic African, Arab, South Asian, Latina, Indigenous, feminist/womanist sistah-friends living in the United States, in Canada, and in Europe, I know I?m not alone with these feelings and fears.

And yet, very unfortunately, when it comes to rape, sexual assault, misogyny, sexual harassment, and other forms of violence perpetuated against women of color at the hands of men of color, men of color are too often silent. Instead of taking responsibility, more often than not, men of color want to spend time and energy on focusing the blame on women of color for the sexual violence that they experience.

If racism, in all of its violent manifestations, ended right this second, African and African American women, Arab women, Asian women, Pacific Islander women, Latinas, South Asian Women, Indigenous women would not be safe. Until African and African American men, Arab men, Asian men, Pacific Islander Men, Latinos, South Asian Men, Indigenous men take up the issue of rape, sexual assault, misogyny, sexual harassment and other forms gender based violence that happen every second of every day, with the same vigilance with which racism, xenophobia, colonialism, enslavement, police brutality, state sanctioned violence, and incarceration are addressed, communities of color will never be whole…will never be healthy…will never be safe.
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Today (September 9, 2014) is the 80th Birthday of Daughter/ Sister/ Mother/ SistaMentor/ SistaTeacher/ SistaPoetLaureate/ Sista CulturalWorker/ SistaComrade/ SistaActivist/ Sista EXTRAORDINAIRE Sonia Sanchez’ 80th Birthday. She has continuously, tirelessly, talked the talk and walked the walk and walked the talk of Peace, Dignity, Justice, Compassion, Liberation for ALL marginalized peoples across the globe for decades. I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to know her as an AuntieSistaTeacher for almost all of my life. Long before any foundation said, yes to funding NO!, Sista Sonia was the first person who, in the 90s, gave me my first major donation towards the WOmanifestion of my film NO! The Rape Documentary. At that time, Sista Sonia was one the rare and few who believed in and supported my vision. I am grateful. I write libation in honor of all that she has done and still continues to do for so many across thie United States country and around the globe.

Today, September 4, 2014, I celebrate the 45th anniversary of Michael Simmons (Dad) refusal to participate in the murder of Vietnamese women, children, and men. This resulted in him serving 2 ½ years (30-months) in prison, when, according to him, the average (White) draft case only served 1 ½ years. I was barely five months old when he began serving his term on September 4, 1969.

Coincidentally (or karmically), my mother (Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons), his ex-wife and life long comrade, was a member of the first American NGO (non-governmental organization) delegation, sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee[1], to go into Vietnam right after the war ended in 1979 and risk her life to sneak into Cambodia, during the barbaric Pol Pot regime to document the testimonies of men, women and children and share them with the western world.

Happy Anniversary Dad of WALKING the HARDCORE PRINCIPLED TALK of Peace and Justice for ALL!!!

Photo of Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons, Michael Simmons and Aishah Shahidah Simmons was taken at Allenwood Federal Prison (prior to Michael being transferred to Lewisburg Federal Prison)

Excerpt: “My story is, one, that because of the Civil Rights Movement, and because of the influences of people like Malcolm X, along with some things that were happening in Philadelphia in the early 1960s, I had made up my mind in high school that I didn’t want to go into the military even if there hadn’t been a war, and clearly I wasn’t going to fight anybody. But my intent was to try to avoid the military and jail, because I didn’t want to go to jail either.

When I got out of high school, I did register for the draft, because I didn’t know any better, and then I started college. During my days in college there was no problem, but I went to college for two years and then I dropped out and went down south and joined the Civil Rights Movement. That’s when I started being hassled by the government in terms of reporting [to the draft board] to take my physical, and the other stuff that I was supposed to do.

It was at that point that I started playing games with the draft board. For example, I used to write these very long letters on Black History, and right in the middle of one of these 12 page letters, I would mention a change of address. Unfortunately, the person who was handling my case was rather astute, so that didn’t work. The draft board would schedule me (to report), and because I was in the Civil Rights Movement, I could arrange to be in jail, or in another town at the time that they scheduled me to report.

This went on for a long time, until finally, they sent me a letter that basically scared me into going in and taking the physical, the other tests, and I was classified as 1-A. At that point, most of the people around me in the civil rights movement were around draft-age, so we were all facing the draft. I started organizing demonstrations at the draft board in Atlanta, and the people at the draft board got accustomed to seeing me down there demonstrating.

On the day of my induction they wouldn’t allow me in the building, and because of an altercation between us and the cops, myself and 11 other people wound up going to jail on the day of my induction. We spent two months in jail for disturbing the peace, disorderly conduct, etc. Two of the men who were charged with me were also charged with insurrection, which at the time, carried a death sentence, which shows you how outrageous this was.

While spending two months in jail, my SNCC comrades, the women, started protesting in front of the draft board every day in black, and that became an international issue because people were talking about the fact that African-Americans were opposing the war, and this became a big deal.

I got out of jail after two months, but about 6-7 months later, I was indicted for refusing to report for induction, even though I had reported, and couldn’t get into the building. They tried me for refusing to report for induction, they claimed that we had damaged a door, so they charged us with damaging federal property, then they claimed that we physically tried to keep another guy from going into the induction center so they charged some of us with impeding the draft.

I was convicted of refusing induction, a couple of brothers were also convicted of impeding the draft, and we were all convicted of damaging federal property. A couple of brothers left the country as opposed to doing the time. I managed to stay out (of jail) for about two years on appeal, and then finally, I lost all my appeals, and I wound up doing 2 1/2 years. I might add, that back in those days, the average draft case only did 1 1/2 years. There’s no question, that because I was African- American, my sentence was stiffer…

During my days in college there was no problem, but I went to college for two years and then I dropped out and went down south and joined the Civil Rights Movement. That’s when I started being hassled by the government in terms of reporting [to the draft board] to take my physical, and the other stuff that I was supposed to do…”

]]>http://notherapedocumentary.org/a-celebration-of-michael-simmons-conscientious-objection-to-war/feed0http://notherapedocumentary.org/a-celebration-of-michael-simmons-conscientious-objection-to-warPetuuche Gilbert Reminds Us That America Was Founded Upon Racial Superiority ~ CERD Reviewhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NoTheRapeDocumentary/~3/RvQsU9fA8DU/petuuche-gilbert-reminds-us-that-america-was-founded-upon-racial-superiority-cerd-review
http://notherapedocumentary.org/petuuche-gilbert-reminds-us-that-america-was-founded-upon-racial-superiority-cerd-review#commentsTue, 02 Sep 2014 00:17:09 +0000adminhttp://notherapedocumentary.org/petuuche-gilbert-reminds-us-that-america-was-founded-upon-racial-superiority-cerd-review“America is founded upon racial superiority. The whole notion of discovering a land that was inhabited by millions of people informs the framework from which the United States government operates throughout the world.”

~Petuuche Gilbert, Rights of Indigenous Peoples at the Meeting with the Deputy High Commissioner, United Nations Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland

photo credit: Aishah Shahidah Simmons

]]>http://notherapedocumentary.org/petuuche-gilbert-reminds-us-that-america-was-founded-upon-racial-superiority-cerd-review/feed0http://notherapedocumentary.org/petuuche-gilbert-reminds-us-that-america-was-founded-upon-racial-superiority-cerd-reviewAishah Shahidah Simmons Spoke Out Against Violence Against Black Women and LGBTQ People at CERD Reviewhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NoTheRapeDocumentary/~3/vqoW22592aE/aishah-shahidah-simmons-spoke-out-against-violence-against-black-women-and-lgbtq-people-at-cerd-review
http://notherapedocumentary.org/aishah-shahidah-simmons-spoke-out-against-violence-against-black-women-and-lgbtq-people-at-cerd-review#commentsTue, 02 Sep 2014 00:07:00 +0000adminhttp://notherapedocumentary.org/aishah-shahidah-simmons-spoke-out-against-violence-against-black-women-and-lgbtq-people-at-cerd-reviewAishah Shahidah Simmons Spoke About Vicious Impact of State Sanctioned and Personal Violence Against Black Women and LGBTQ People during CERD at the United Nations

On the afternoon of August 12, 2104, Aishah Shahidah Simmons, on behalf of Black Women’s Blueprint, delivered a statement about the impact of the intersections of race, gender, and sexuality on Black women and LGBTQ victim survivors of state sanctioned and personal/intimate violence to members of the Senior U.S. Government Delegation to the United Nations CERD Review in Geneva.

Following is the text of the statement:

Greetings! My name is Aishah Shahidah Simmons and I am a commissioner of BlackWomen’s Blueprint US Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Black Women and Sexual Assault. Our issues address violations of CERD article 5b regarding the attainment of “security of person and protection by the State against violence or bodily harm.” As a Black feminist lesbian who is an incest and rape survivor, I am reminded that the struggle to talk about and address state and personal violence against Black women and LGBTQ people in a local, national AND international racial justice framework is never ending and relentless. Any individual, organization, institution, treaty and/or law that ask us to choose our oppression is not interested in our full liberation. The end of racism, while extremely important does NOT mean that Black women and LGBTQ people will be safe from violence.

We at Black Women’s Blueprint’s ask specific questions that we believe the United States must address:

1. What will be done to improve the drastically under-reported cases of rape in U.S. communities of color?

2. What will the U.S. do to reduce incidences of intimate partner violence and other instances of lethal domestic violence in Black/African-American communities and/or LGBTQ communities?

3. How will the U.S. address the increasing criminalization of Black/African-American women and LGBTQ people?

These questions underscore why the United States must have an intersectional approach, whose foundation includes incorporating racial identity, gender identity, sexuality, class, citizenship status, religion, and/or physical ability, to address racial discrimination. This approach would enable all of us to be more effective with addressing all of the needs of those who are the most marginalized. Thank You.

photo credit: Nikki Patin

]]>http://notherapedocumentary.org/aishah-shahidah-simmons-spoke-out-against-violence-against-black-women-and-lgbtq-people-at-cerd-review/feed0http://notherapedocumentary.org/aishah-shahidah-simmons-spoke-out-against-violence-against-black-women-and-lgbtq-people-at-cerd-reviewNikki Patin and Frances Nielah Bradley Speak and Paint Black Women’s Truth to POWER during CERD at the United Nationshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NoTheRapeDocumentary/~3/h20JXBdMEqM/nikki-patin-and-frances-nielah-bradley-speak-and-paint-black-womens-truth-to-power
http://notherapedocumentary.org/nikki-patin-and-frances-nielah-bradley-speak-and-paint-black-womens-truth-to-power#commentsMon, 01 Sep 2014 23:50:54 +0000adminhttp://notherapedocumentary.org/nikki-patin-and-frances-nielah-bradley-speak-and-paint-black-womens-truth-to-powerNikki Patin and Frances Nielah Bradley Speak and Paint Black Women’s Truth to POWER during CERD at the United Nations

Cultural Workers Extraordinaire Nikki Patin and Frances Nielah Bradley represented on behalf of themselves, Black Women’s Blueprint and all Black women and girls who experienced the atrocity of rape or other forms of sexual violence in OUR lifetimes at the morning hearings by Civil Society at the United Nations in Geneva during the CERD U.S. Review on August 12, 2014.

Nikki’s riveting and potent direct/impact statement and Frances’ painting, which speaks over 1,000 words honed in on the sobering reality that the rape of Black women and girls is not viewed as a racial, gender, and sexuality justice issue.

“At a young age, I knew that my body, both Black and female, was not valued by the country where I was born. The impact of sexual violence on Black women is in my own painful memories of experiencing rape twice before the age of 25. It is in the experiences of my Black female friends, colleagues and students as they have struggled with being molested, abused, harassed on the street, drugged and sexually assaulted by both strangers and family, friends, first-time dates and lifelong mentors, like the artist standing next to me, Frances Nielah Bradley. The impact can be felt in the vast numbers of Black women in the U.S. who have been raped, somewhere between 40-60%, with only one in ten reporting and, when they do report, experiencing the lowest conviction rates of all ethnic groups. The impact can be felt in the lives of young, Black women who drop out of universities, due to PTSD, because faculty and staff are not educated on how to support them in filing a report. This is where the impact, in violation of article 5(b) of CERD regarding the attainment of “security of person and protection by the State against violence or bodily harm, is most deeply felt: inside police departments, hospitals, schools, judicial buildings and even racial justice movements where Black women are told that justice is not for them, that no one will protect them, that their civil rights as Americans and their human rights as people mean nothing. I ask the Committee to ask the US government to ensure that Black female victims of sexual violence are given support services that are culturally competent, that all rape kits are tested in a timely and responsible manner and for discrimination against Black victims inside the courts to be eliminated at both the local and state levels. Black women in the U.S. deserve justice NOW.” ~ Nikki Patin

Nikki Patin, Frances Nielah Bradley, and healer Sherley Accime on behalf of Black women and girl survivors in the United States.

While the people of Ferguson, Missouri were uprising and simultaneously being held under siege in the wake of Mike Brown’s vicious murder; Mr. Ron Davis (father of Jordan Davis) and Ms. Sybrina Fulton (mother of Trayvon Martin) with her eldest son Jahvaris Fulton delivered powerful direct impact statements/testimonies during the morning hearings by Civil Society at the United Nations CERD U.S. Review on August 12, 2014.

photo credit: Aishah Shahidah Simmons

]]>http://notherapedocumentary.org/ron-davis-and-sybrina-fulton-delivered-powerful-direct-impact-statements-at-united-nations/feed0http://notherapedocumentary.org/ron-davis-and-sybrina-fulton-delivered-powerful-direct-impact-statements-at-united-nationsBlack Women’s Blueprint at the United Nations during CERD U.S. Reviewhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NoTheRapeDocumentary/~3/USbZ8S4Vaec/black-womens-blueprint-at-the-united-nations-during-cerd-u-s-review
http://notherapedocumentary.org/black-womens-blueprint-at-the-united-nations-during-cerd-u-s-review#commentsMon, 01 Sep 2014 23:21:28 +0000adminhttp://notherapedocumentary.org/black-womens-blueprint-at-the-united-nations-during-cerd-u-s-reviewBlack Women’s Blueprint’s Delegation to the United Nations CERD U.S.Review in Geneva, Switzerland

“This is the first Shadow Report submitted by Black Women’s Blueprint to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD). The organization is particularly concerned with the U.S. implementation of CERD articles 1 through 6 which condemn “racial discrimination and exclusion” and requires States to…“seek to avoid it in policy or practice by governments, organisations and individuals.” The organization is also concerned with the attainment of “security of person and protection by the State against violence or bodily harm…by any individual group or institution” outlined in article 5(b) of the Convention. Racial discrimination and gender-violence continue to be significant issues in the United States as Black women, including those who are sexually marginalized like lesbians, bisexual or transgender women, are impacted in ways that demand closer examination and warrant exposure to public scrutiny and policy-makers. In this brief report, we will focus our attention on a specific law and a federal initiative in the United States which inadequately or do not address racial discrimination and gender-violence against women of color…”

]]>http://notherapedocumentary.org/black-womens-blueprint-at-the-united-nations-during-cerd-u-s-review/feed0http://notherapedocumentary.org/black-womens-blueprint-at-the-united-nations-during-cerd-u-s-reviewReflections on the Day of Traveling with Black Women’s Blueprint to Genevahttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NoTheRapeDocumentary/~3/5jAcR13b8do/reflections-on-the-day-of-traveling-with-black-womens-blueprint-to-geneva
http://notherapedocumentary.org/reflections-on-the-day-of-traveling-with-black-womens-blueprint-to-geneva#commentsMon, 01 Sep 2014 23:07:59 +0000adminhttp://notherapedocumentary.org/?p=941Aishah Shahidah Simmons’ Reflections About Being A Member of Black Women’s Blueprint’s Delegation to the United Nations

I left the country for the first time in 1989 on a study abroad program during my sophomore year in college. That journey and my preceding herstory as an incest survivor marked the trajectory of my life. In 1989, I was raped one night and had consensual sex with another man the following night. I returned home pregnant unsure of who the father was and six weeks later had a safe and legal abortion a few days after my twentieth birthday. Three months later, recognizing that I was functionally depressed, Michael Simmons (Dad) took me to Vitoria Gasteiz, Spain to attend an international nuclear disarmament conference. After the conference, I backpacked throughout Spain alone for five weeks. During my journey I met with members of the Basque Separatist Movement, the Women’s League of the Communist Party of Barcelona and Madrid. It was in Granada, Spain at the Alhambra that I wrote in my journal that rather than go in debt over a degree, I would go in debt over a film… Little did I know

Five years later in 1994, I was the youngest member of the American Friends Service Committee’s delegation to observe the first elections post the end of “legal” apartheid. There was a cosmic symmetry about my journey because it was almost exactly 30-years after Dr. Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons (Mom) went to Laurel, Mississippi in 1964 (through 1966) to fight against/defy U.S. Sanctioned Apartheid by working with Local Mississippians and her SNCC comrades to register disenfranchised African-Americans to vote. I traveled through and stayed in South Africa for five weeks. It was there that I received a poster from Black South African Feminist Activists that said “The most violent social settings in South Africa was in the home, the crime battering.” Prior to that moment, I never ever thought about violence perpetuated against women in Black and Coloured South African Communities. We never ever talked about gender violence against Black and Coloured women, in the anti-apartheid activist work that I participated in as both a high school and college student. The only violence we talked about was state sanctioned racialized violence. From my own molestation and rape to Desiree Washington, there were many seeds that were planted but it was in South Africa where the seed that eventually (12-years later) became my film NO! The Rape Documentary was fertilized. Never ever again, would I only think about violence in a racilaized in the absence of gender and sexuality lens. NEVER!

Since 1994, I’ve been most fortunate to travel extensively in numerous countries throughout Europe, and journey to Kenya, Malaysia, and India. Almost all of those journeys were directly related to my work to address violence perpetuated against women and LGBTQ people.

Twenty-five years after my very first international journey that forever changed my life, things appear to come full circle. I’m humbled and grateful that I was invited to embark on a journey to Geneva, Switzerland on behalf of Black Women’s Blueprint with my sisters/comrades Farah Tanis, Christina Jaus, Ibo Zié La Lune, Nikki Patin Frances Nielah Bradley to testify at the United Nations about the too often unaddressed state sanctioned and intimate violence perpetuated against women and LGBTQ people in Black communities in the United States. This is very personal work and it’s very political work.

Our individual and collective work (along with the work of so many known and unknown sisters) is often underfunded and under paid, if paid at all. And yet, it is an absolute privilege. I believe those of us who are able have a responsibility and an obligation to do this work, which is part of a continuum of various forms of resistance practiced from Enslavement of African people in the Americas and Caribbean through present day — Free Marissa Now!!!!!

I AM … WE ARE metaphorically standing in the blood and upon the shoulders of straight and queer people who willingly AND unwillingly gave their lives for racial, gender and/or Black queer liberation.

Quoting Co-Founder and Executive Director of Black Women’s Blueprint, Sister Farah Tanis, “It is by telling our own life stories and by writing new narratives toward justice that we practice liberation, heal ourselves and shift the current paradigm—lifting the foot of oppression off of our necks so we can be free.”

I invoke my beloved Sister-Comrade-RADICAL-Pan African-Feminist-Anti Rape Activist-Scholar Dr. Aaronette M. White whose second ancestral anniversary is quickly approaching. She used her activism and scholarship to consistently and tirelessly address all forms of gender violence in various parts of the world – the U.S., Africa, Caribbean, Asia, and Europe. If Aaronette were here in the physical form, I know she would most definitely support our efforts (http://hosted-p0.vresp.com/764463/92351ffc87/ARCHIVE) if not also figure out a way to get on the plane and join us. She is with us in Spirit.

When we construct universal notions of women or masculine notions of Blackness?when we claim only some forms of violence as central to our struggles, we are claiming or remembering particular histories. Central to constructing more radical political struggles is the reclamation and reconstruction of fuller, more complex histories.” -Dr. Elsa Barkley Brown, Black Feminist Historian and Activist

When the United States ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) in 1994, it agreed to submit periodic state reports to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the U.N. body charged with monitoring state compliance with the Convention. However, only after criticism and demands by civil society, including feminists of color, gender justice and human rights advocates, that these reports move beyond male centered paradigms, did the U.S. include in its reports gendered forms of racial discrimination experienced by women of color and LGBTQ communities. ?For many of us, our particular experiences as Black/African American women are testament to the ways in which gendered forms of racial discrimination have devastating consequences on the full enjoyment of equality and fundamental human rights both in private and public spheres.

On July 8 and 9, 2014, just a few days after the 50th Anniversary of the passage of the Civil Rights Act, Black Women?s Blueprint Executive Director, Farah Tanis and Creator of NO! The Rape Documentary, Aishah Shahidah Simmons both presented on behalf of Black Women’s Blueprint at the Civil Society Consultations at the US State Department on CERD, the Human Rigths Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination as well as the UPR, the Universal Periodic Review. Both activists testified about racial discrimination and the devastating impact on women and LGBTQ people of color. Farah Tanis presented in person on racial discrimination and the intersection of gender and violence and Aishah Shahidah Simmons presented on intimate partner and state sanctioned violence against LGBTQ people of color. We are about our foremothers’ business and will keep community posted on the work to center the lives of women and girls squarely within what are often considered ?the broader? racial justice concerns of Black communities. We continue to make it explicit that a violation against one of us, whether by the State or by a fellow community member is a violation against us all.

On Friday, March 7, 2014, TFW Associate Editor Aishah Shahidah Simmons gave a presentation on the importance of naming?and ending sexual violence with approximately 50 African-American and Latino students from Washington Prep High School ?and Duke Ellington Continuation School’s Women of Color in the U.S. class ?in South Los Angeles. This International Women’s Day (IWD) presentation was conceived and organized by TFW’s Contributing Editor Sikivu Hutchinson who is an award-winning author, senior intergroup specialist for the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission, and founder of the Women?s Leadership Project (WLP), a high school feminist mentoring program. While WLP’s focus is on girls, this IWD presentation was mixed gender because sexual violence impacts everyone directly and/or indirectly.

During her presentation, Simmons screened an excerpt of her internationally acclaimed, award-winning film NO! The RapeDocumentary,?shared parts of her own incest and rape survivor herstory, and?talked about some of the issues covered in the film. They included: rape as a community issue that reinforces interlocking systems of oppression; the role of religion in violence against women; media stereotypes about Black women; and Black men as profeminst allies in the anti-sexual violence movement.

photo: Aishah Shahidah Simmons at Washington Prep High School

In spite of the time constraints, Hutchinson and Simmons were able to persevere with their?shared vision for the late morning session, which focused on raising awareness about the prevalence of sexual violence. They created a space where students could freely ask questions and discuss topics, which are often viewed as taboo and inappropriate in an academic context. Additionally the students also had an opportunity to meet and engage with a Black feminist filmmaker and cultural worker who uses the camera lens and other cultural mediums to break deafening taboo silences and make visible the invisible.

Since 2006 WLP?has been based at South L.A. high schools like Gardena and Washington Prep High School, and Duke Ellington CS. Using a humanist curriculum with a social justice lens, the goal of the program is to empower young women of color to develop their own voices, increase their self-esteem, foster healthy relationships, promote critical consciousness about and activism around race, gender, and LGBT equality, and prepare for college and careers. WLP guides young women through public advocacy?projects of their own choosing, toward helping them develop and sharpen their critical thinking, writing, organizing and leadership skills.

photo: Aishah Shahidah Simmons and Jamion Allen

The presentation was supported by program coordinator Betty Rosenda Green and intern Jamion Allen, a 2013 graduate of Washington Prep High School. Allen, a WLP alum, was featured in ?TFW’s April 19, 2013 “Feminists We Love,” profile and is presently in her first year of college. In addition to her technical expertise, Allen played an important role in co-faciliating, with Hutchinson, the opening icebreaker, which dispelled some of the countless rape myths and misconceptions.

photo: Darnell L. Moore, First Lady of New York Chirlane McCray, and Aishah Shahidah Simmons at Mother Tongue Monologues 2014

New York City’s First Lady Chirlane McCray was one of the 420 attendees at this multi-generational educational and celebratory gathering whose goal was to use drummers, actors, poets, dancers, survivors’ testimonies, and activists in the anti-sexual assault movement to break the devastating silences around sexual violence and move towards healing and reconciliation. The First Lady of New York is a feminist whose friendship with Barbara Smith dates back to the 70s when they were both members of the Black feminist Combahee River Collective.

For more than 20 years, Aishah Shahidah Simmons has produced, written and edited award-winning independent documentaries with the intent of igniting meaningful social change because I do not create art for art’s sake, she says.

“My goal with my film/video work has been to visually engage audiences while educating them and encouraging them to work towards eradicating racism, sexism, and homophobia, in all of their violent manifestations,” says Simmons, who was awarded Scripps College’s spring 2014 Erma Taylor O?Brien Distinguished Visiting Professorship.

Simmons is on campus in the Feminist, Gender, and Sexualities Studies Department through March 14. She will guest lecture in classes and will work with students. Her Ford Foundation-funded, award-winning film?NO! The Rape Documentary has been screened and used extensively across the United States and internationally in the global movement to end violence against women and children.

I believe that each one of us has the birth right to live in a world where oppression and exploitation based on gender, race/ethnicity, national origin/citizenship, sexual orientation, class, and/or religion is non-existent,? says Simmons, who also teaches in the Women’s Studies and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) Studies programs at Temple University.

She uses film and the written word as her ‘primary tools’ to encourage audiences throughout the world to reflect on harmful stereotypical images doled out by corporate media companies.

“I chose film/video and the written/spoken word as my primary tools to make radical and compassionate progressive social change irresistible because we live in an age where people are inundated with messaging, the majority of which is both directly and indirectly manufactured by a handful of global corporations,” says Simmons, who is based in Philadelphia.

An associate editor of the online magazineThe Feminist Wire, Simmons has organized two free public events at Scripps. The first event is scheduled for Feb. 13 at 7 p.m. in the Humanities Auditorium and it will touch on?Mediating Feminisms ? The Feminist Wire Editors and Writers Roundtable. The second event will be on Feb. 26 at 7 p.m. in Vita Nova 100 and will entail a discussion of the recently released anthology?Dear Sister: Letters From Survivors of Sexual Violence, edited by Lisa Factora-Borchers. Simmons wrote the book’s foreword. A book signing will follow the discussion.

She will also participate in the Humanities Institute’s spring 2014 free lecture series Feminism and the Radical Imagination. On Feb. 18, she will speak on Afrolezfemcentric Perspectives on Coloring and Queering Gender-Based Violence at 7:30 p.m. in Garrison Theater of the Scripps College Performing Arts Center, 231 E. 10th St. This lecture is open to the public.

Named in honor of Erma Taylor O’Brien ‘36, the O’Brien Distinguished Visiting Professorship was endowed through her estate. The professorship allows Scripps College to host visiting scholars-in-residence whose expertise in the liberal and fine arts fields significantly enriches academic thought.

]]>http://notherapedocumentary.org/aishah-shahidah-simmons-awarded-erma-taylor-obrien-distinguished-visiting-professorship-at-scripps-college/feed0http://notherapedocumentary.org/aishah-shahidah-simmons-awarded-erma-taylor-obrien-distinguished-visiting-professorship-at-scripps-collegeCelebrating the Extraordinary Who Are Relegated to Ordinary: A Tribute to Rebecca White Simmons Chapman and Juanita Cranford Robinson Watsonhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NoTheRapeDocumentary/~3/ARpq8-v7Cwo/celebrating-the-extraordinary-who-are-relegated-to-ordinary-a-tribute-to-rebecca-white-simmons-chapman-and-juanita-cranford-robinson-watson
http://notherapedocumentary.org/celebrating-the-extraordinary-who-are-relegated-to-ordinary-a-tribute-to-rebecca-white-simmons-chapman-and-juanita-cranford-robinson-watson#commentsSun, 12 May 2013 20:55:00 +0000adminhttp://notherapedocumentary.org/celebrating-the-extraordinary-who-are-relegated-to-ordinary-a-tribute-to-rebecca-white-simmons-chapman-and-juanita-cranford-robinson-watsonAishah Shahidah Simmons’ Mother’s Day Tribute to the Phenomenal Legacies of her two Nanas for The Feminist Wire

Nana (Rebecca White Simmons Chapman)

Too often, we do not celebrate the extraordinary individuals who, because of their race, gender, and/or socio-economic standing, lived what appeared to be ordinary lives. This year, I am paying homage to my paternal and maternal grandmothers’ lives and legacies. I proudly stand upon the shoulders of my Nanas—Mrs. Rebecca White Simmons Chapman and Mrs. Juanita Cranford Robinson Watson—whose lives were remarkable.

My grandmothers grew up in abject poverty in Rock Hill, South Carolina and Memphis, Tennessee. Nana Chapman was the third of four children born to Jack White, Sr., and Maggie Pagan White. When she left school in the fourth grade to financially support her family by working as a domestic cleaning white people’s homes, she was forced to abandon her dream of becoming a nurse. Alone with limited financial means as a domestic laborer in the 1930s, she moved from South Carolina to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania when she was 12 years old. Nana Watson’s formative years were also quite challenging. She was the 9th child of 10 children born to Mattie Garrett Cranford and Henderson Cranford. She was orphaned early, losing both of her parents as a very young child. Both her paternal grandmother Mrs. Francis Macklin, and paternal aunt, Mrs. Florence Cranford, raised her and her siblings. Nana Watson was an excellent student who completed the 11th grade during the Great Depression. Never overzealous with their Christian faith, Nanas Chapman and Watson were active and engaged members in their churches—Jones Tabernacle African Methodist Episcopal Church and Pilgrim Rest Missionary Baptist Church, respectively. Neither woman subscribed to the belief in a vengeful God who would bring His wrath upon those who didn’t follow (human interpretations of) His will. Nana Chapman always taught and believed that “good deeds are their own rewards.”

During World War II, Nana Chapman worked at the Budd Automotive Company, then subsequently began working at Sichek Clothing factory in Philadelphia, where she quickly rose to floor manager. Throughout her tenure at Sichek, she was an active union member and a shop steward.

During that same period, Nana Watson became a pioneer by breaking the virulently racist Jim Crow color line by becoming the first African-American woman to write laundry tickets for Memphis Steam Laundry and Cleaners. Prior to her, no African-American women worked in this position because it required collecting money from and interacting with white customers during a time when racial segregation was strictly enforced. This type of work was reserved for white women. African Americans, nevertheless, endured and resisted this U.S.-sanctioned domestic terrorism.

Nana Watson valiantly persevered despite the racism that I can barely imagine, much less stomach, that she endured from most of the white women customers who didn’t want to accept laundry tickets from a “Colored Woman.” While it was not her intention, she was a trailblazer who broke ground in this field and paved the way for those African-American women who followed her.

And yet, there was no fanfare for the pioneering work of Nana Watson and Nana Chapman primarily because we live in a classist society and the work of laborers, most especially Black women laborers is not valued or respected. They, like so many African-American women of their generation, were unsung and very quiet extraordinary sheroes.

Challenging the racial and gender stereotypes of the 1950s and 60s, Nana Chapman demanded that all strata of society respect her and her family. She was committed to supporting African-American health care professionals, attorneys and other business people throughout her life. She was particularly proud that her two sons’ first doctor was an African-American woman.

In 1962, Nana Chapman was diagnosed with multiple myeloma and was given five years to live. She wasn’t daunted by the prognosis. With her faith in God, along with the unlimited emotional, psychic, and financial support of her second husband, Willie L. Chapman, my grandfather, Nana outlived this diagnosis by 39-years. Over a 30-year span, the illness caused her to be hospitalized on average of every 18-months. She was exposed to an inordinate amount of radiation, which made her bones too brittle to be exposed to extended sunlight; and she was often in excruciating pain. In spite of these major impediments, Nana insisted on and lived a normal life.

In the 1970s, Nana Watson and her second husband, Reverend Granville Watson, established their own cleaning business, which provided quality janitorial services for Hobson-Kerns Realty for many years. After her divorce, Nana continued providing cleaning services for this and other companies for decades until her retirement at the age of 80.

Both Nanas Chapman and Watson were hard workers who held life long desires and quests for knowledge. They were avid readers with homes filled with books, magazines, and newspapers. Neither woman defined herself in terms of education or paid work. Rather, each saw her quality of life determined by what kind of sister, wife, mother, grandmother, and friend she was to those she loved.

Long before I had ever heard of and encountered my teacher, mentor, and big sister friend Toni Cade Bambara, Nana Chapman was my teacher and mentor. Until I was 21-years in this journey called life, there was hardly anything that I could not share with her. With the exception of one big secret, I talked to her about almost everything –religion and spirituality, reproductive freedom, politics, my queer sexuality, education, and friendships with my peers. Her home was my second home. During my turbulent pre-teen and teenage years, Nana and I would talk on the phone almost daily for hours at a time. She was my “Nana Banana” and I was her “Apple Pie.” I never felt like she didn’t have time for my issues, concerns, thoughts, ideas, and/or fears. For many years she was literally my emotional and psychic lifeline. She never used the words “Black feminist” to describe herself, but she played a major role in teaching me Black feminist principles. She always made it explicitly clear that there were no limits to any goals that a woman sought to achieve. She would always tell me, “There’s no such thing as ‘can’t,’ Pie.” These conversations played a pivotal role on my current quest to write about and document the struggles of African-American women and other women of color. With a fourth grade education and a PhD. in life experience, she was my intellectual adviser, my trusted confidante, sought after consultant, and my friend.

Aishah & Nana (Juanita Cranford Robinson Watson)

I will not be a revisionist and say that Nana Watson and I were extremely close because we were not. There was deep love and affection shared between us. However, very unfortunately, with the exception of one-year when she came to live with my mother (Dr. Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons) and I during my adolescence, we never lived geographically close to each other. Over the years our relationship was really relegated to phone calls and brief visits over holidays or during birthdays. And yet, she always traveled to Philadelphia to attend major milestone events in the lives of her daughter and granddaughter. While she didn’t think that rape was something to be discussed in public or even private, Nana made several financial contributions, which supported the making of my film NO! The Rape Documentary.

Nana had a will power that would not be denied. When she set her mind on something, there really wasn’t anything that you could do to change it. Even if she changed her mind, it was not because someone forced her to do so. As her health declined over the years, she was not aware that she could no longer fully take care of herself. In her mind’s eye, she was still the same Mrs. Juanita Watson she had always been, just slightly older. I write this because it is difficult to come to grips with the fact that someone who has taken care of you is in need of care. It is often hard to face the sobering aging process. Additionally, it is very challenging to do this work when our aging loved ones don’t believe they are in need of care.

Both of my grandmothers died in the Chinese Astrology year of the snake in 2001 and 2013, respectively. I am moved that they died within a 12-year cycle. I don’t know what the timing all means. I know that being with both of them in their deaths transformed me as much as knowing them when they were physically alive.

I was alone with Nana Chapman during the last three days of her life in 2001. She beat cancer, but not Alzheimer’s disease. I rubbed her body, combed her hair, played African-American spirituals and gospel music in rotation, and called upon her ancestors to welcome her. She wasn’t conscious, and yet, she was present. Recognizing that the end of her human form was imminent, I found my voice to share with her the one secret that I kept from her for over 20 years because of spoken loyalty to my parents and unspoken loyalty to my grandfather. I was molested over a period of two years. I don’t know what she absorbed, if anything, during my highly emotional disclosure. What I know is that a shift happened within me, and my incest burden was slightly lighter. I wasn’t with her when she transitioned from this realm to the next. I left five hours before her last breath. At that time, I didn’t have a full understanding of the process of dying nor did I have a grasp that she was departing. I told myself that I would return to the hospital the next day. Knowing what I know now, I firmly believe that I was afraid to witness her death. I knew she transitioned somewhere between 4:00am – 5:00am on December 22, 2001 because I was awakened by an unexplained loving presence in my bedroom. I knew it was her presence. She was no longer here in the physical form. When I received the call several hours later, I said to my dad (Michael Simmons), “I know. Nana has passed on.”

The experience of being so close and yet, missing her transition sent me on a spiritual quest, which ultimately led me to my practice of vipassana meditation –an invaluable and non-negotiable anchor on my life’s journey.

Only one month ago, I arrived in Memphis during the last 26-hours of Nana Watson’s life. During those sacred hours, I came face to face with the fact that I missed so much with my maternal grandmother. Simultaneously, I also realized that it was not a time for guilt, but a time to support and witness the final stages of her transition into the next realm. I was by her side in deep prayer in her religious (Christian) tradition and in deep meditation in my spiritual tradition. Unlike in 2001 when I was with Nana Chapman, I came prepared to be completely present during Nana Watson’s transition. She was no longer conscious, but I felt her presence. I rubbed and massaged her body and called upon her ancestors to welcome her into the next realm. I shared and reflected upon many things that I’m not comfortable sharing in this article. I practiced Mett? meditation. I played what was perhaps a continuous stream of African-American spirituals and gospel. She made her transition at 4:00AM on April 6, 2013. The song that was playing around the time of her transition was Sweet Honey in the Rock’s “Come by Here”— arranged by Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon. I sat and stood prayerfully and meditatively in silence with Nana Watson’s body while being acutely aware of the universal law of impermanence.

About 45-minutes to an hour after her transition, the Hospice nurse, my mother, and I bathed Nana’s body before the undertaker arrived. It was an incredible ritual. During the bathing, I saw an 89-year old version of my own body. I am flesh of her flesh and womb of her womb in this lifetime.

I am grateful that Nana Watson entrusted me with the profound gift to support her crossing over and witness her final hours in the physical form. This gift has left an indelible imprint on me. I am forever changed.

In life and in death, Rebecca White Simmons Chapman and Juanita Cranford Robinson Watson have directly and indirectly impacted my journey called life. I inherited and now walk with their Black feminist warrior legacies

“…Whenever I reflect upon the sources of my spirituality as a Black woman, I think of love, struggle, work, self-sight, justice, and celebration taught to me by so many Black voices, most of them female. For this I continue to be deeply grateful. For this I celebrate the very force of Life itself.”[1]

May Nana Chapman and Nana Watson be peaceful, happy, and fully liberated.

]]>http://notherapedocumentary.org/celebrating-the-extraordinary-who-are-relegated-to-ordinary-a-tribute-to-rebecca-white-simmons-chapman-and-juanita-cranford-robinson-watson/feed0http://notherapedocumentary.org/celebrating-the-extraordinary-who-are-relegated-to-ordinary-a-tribute-to-rebecca-white-simmons-chapman-and-juanita-cranford-robinson-watsonAudre Lorde on the Mutability of Painhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NoTheRapeDocumentary/~3/Ra7a9lSGsGQ/audre-lorde-on-the-mutability-of-pain
http://notherapedocumentary.org/audre-lorde-on-the-mutability-of-pain#commentsTue, 07 May 2013 02:05:07 +0000adminhttp://notherapedocumentary.org/audre-lorde-on-the-mutability-of-painPain IS Mutable

#Impermanence #AudreLordeWisdom #UniversalTruth

“…Pain is important: how we evade it, how we succumb to it, how we deal with it, how we transcend it. I always thought I had a very low threshold for physical pain, that I could not take it and that was that. I did not know how to stand still gracefully when I got beaten, which was every day. I passed out in dentists’ offices. And there was always the secret fear of it. Recently, I had a physical experience that was ghastly and terrible—and wonderful because it taught me about pain.

Not long ago I unlocked the old window of my very old Victorian house on Staten Island. Somehow the chain broke and the window fell down immediately and caught my hand. There was no way to pull it out and every one was gone for the weekend. I broke the window and called for help, and it was seven minutes before someone came. I have the scars to remind me. It was crucial, that seven minutes. In it I lived the whole history of pain from start to finish. The genesis of pain, where you put it, how you channel it and how you end it. The choice was immediate: to die, or bear the pain. And what does bearing mean? It means changing or going through. It is not death. It is an experience encapsulated. It could stop. It could be ended. By chewing off my arm, for example. But this was not possible for me. So the pain is transformed. The intensity changes. It has to stop or it has to change. This was a physical knowledge that I had not had before, that pain has a mutability. That is very, very important, and that is just as true about emotional pain: it will change or stop. And the worst thing that can happen is death, but that is a whole different thing to involve yourself in. I felt at that point that there was nothing I could not do, nothing that I could not deal with, because pain will always either change or stop. Always. I have tested this since then, and it is always clear and workable…” ~ 1976 interview with Audre Lorde by Nina Winter featured in “Conversations with Audre Lorde,” (Joan Wylie Hall, editor), p. 16

With the news about the recent arrest of four Morehouse College students on sexual assault charges, it is explicitly and undeniable clear that now is the time to continue the very difficult dialogue about eradicating rape and rape culture. Make no mistake, rape and other forms of sexual violence are happening on all college campuses across the country. Tragically, there aren’t many “rape free” spaces. In a culturally specific context, however, the horrible combination of racism and misogyny often results in a deafening silence when Black men rape Black women. This is evident on too many HBCU campuses.

Ramesh Kathandhi and Aishah Shahidah Simmons (photo: Lani Jones)

On the evening of April 25, 2013, we were small in number in Spelman College’s Cosby Auditorium. And yet, we had a powerful post-NO! The Rape Documentary discussion about breaking the silence about sexual violence and ending rape culture on our college campuses, in our families, our communities, and society at large. I was very fortunate to co-facilitate the dialogue with Ramesh Kathandhi, who is the internship coordinator at Men Stopping Violence. Drs. Beverly Daniel Tatum (President of Spelman College), Darnita Killian (Vice President of Student Affairs), and Kimberly Ferguson (Dean of Students) were also in attendance and expressed a commitment to tackle this issue head on with the students.

We will continue and broaden this dialogue at Spelman College in the fall 2013 and in the spring 2014.Stay tuned for details when they become available.

Infinite gratitude to Drs. Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Cynthia Neal Spence (Associate Professor of Sociology and Trustee of the Board), and Spelman College’s Women’s Research and Resource Center (WRRC) for their tireless and relentless work to not allow the vicious rape epidemic go unnoticed, unchecked, and/or unaddressed. Founded in 1981 by Dr. Guy-Sheftall, the WRRC has been long-term supporter of NO! The Rape Documentary from conception (1994) to completion (2006) and distribution (present day).

…We are called to be fiercely honest, compassionate, and gracious in our discourse. Radical love can hold our rage, our sadness, and our grief over the ways we have failed each other, and may continue to fail each other. Without love, we remain fractured beyond measure.

In closing, we want to offer an opening; that is, our Forum has been as much about forging dialogue as it has been about trying to locate lived experiences. Over the past ten days, this collection of essays, visual art, poetry, creative nonfiction, and love notes has functioned as an invitation to think critically and to act ethically, to recognize our structural locations, and to innovate new ways of living as allies and practicing community.

As part of our commitment to continuing this dialogue about race, racism, and anti-racism within feminisms, we will continue to publish works that engage our deepest concerns as a collective. We invite you to share your insights with us as we explore more of this fertile and volatile terrain…

Painting by Mequitta Ahuja

Radical Love, Race, and Feminist Futures includes links to every single article, love note, poem, interview, and visual artwork that was featured in the Forum. If you missed some of the featured pieces or would like to refer to them in the future, you may do so by clicking here.

TFW’s co-founder and managing editor Tamura A. Lomax said, “[the Forum] was the most diverse critical discourse on this subject/life matter to date.” She continues, “And yes, I’m quite thrilled that it happened at TFW. The issue(s) re: race within (and without) feminism is not black and white, nor is it simply gray. In actuality it’s quite colorful. And if we’ve learned nothing else this past week and a half, we know there’s still lots of work ahead. And, we ALL have work to do.”

The Forum’s lead editor Heidi Renée Lewis, in concert with the team of co-editors (Aimee Meredith Cox, Heather Laine Talley, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Hakima Abbas, Tamura A. Lomax, Monica Casper, Omar Ricks, Shubra Sharma, and Aishah Shahidah Simmons), compassionately and lovingly worked together virtually across multiple time zones in the United States and internationally in Africa and South Asia often while simultaneously on the road, teaching, lecturing, mothering, partnering, conferencing, and dealing with unexpected life altering personal, familial, and professional life crises. Just when many wanted to throw in the towel and forgo the conclusion other than say, “That’s all folks! Take care,” Brooke Elise Axtell, picked up the ball and helped everyone carry it across the finish line.

The power of the compassionate, loving, and selfless TFW Collective can never be denied.

The Women’s Resource Center, Women of Color Action Team, and the Multicultural Center at Portland State University hosted a screening and discussion of NO! The Rape Documentary on Tuesday, April 23, 2013. Tonya L. Jones, one of the organizers of the event reported that the screening and discussion had a “decent attendance and they received positive reviews on the evaluations.”

On April 18, 2013, The Portland State Vanguard published “Empowering Survivors: Documentary N[O]! Screens at Multicultural Center by Megan Fresh,” an article about the vision for the screening and discussion. Following is an excerpt:

[Tonya L.] Jones’ goal for the program is “that students will walk away reflecting and thinking about how they can be an ally to make all of our communities safer for women of color—for all women period,” she said. “Also, hopefully they walk away respecting the voices and experiences of women of color…

Jones described the intersection of sexual assault and African-American communities, providing the context for the event.

Images of black women are often distorted, and we are made into caricatures,” she said. “Our bodies and our sexuality tend to be degraded in mainstream media. The stereotypes prevent many people from seeing us as full human beings. Because of this, many people don’t take our experiences seriously.

“It affects how people respond to us when we are dealing with sexual assault/violence, in and outside [of] the black community,” Jones said. “Hopefully students will think about this and how important is for all of us to reject and resist negative representations of black womanhood…

You may read the article in its entirety by clicking here: bit.ly/11Dxx3o

…Asked what she thinks is at the root of what’s called the current “rape culture,” Ms. Simmons says rape remains a weapon of patriarchy, an attempt to “put women in their place. There is a feeling that the traditional male power structure is slipping away and the immediate response to any perceived uprising is always to squash it. There is also still an idea that it’s acceptable to denigrate women, reducing them to receptacles rather than people, an idea unfortunately perpetuated in the culture and media. The difference between now and a few decades ago is that women are increasingly not silent about the violence perpetuated against them – be it sexual assault or a battering by a partner…

One issue NO! explores that gets very little traction in the wider discussion of rape is that rape is also a weapon of homophobia. “There is an attitude expressed by some men that says, ‘I’m gonna rape her straight,’” says Ms. Simmons. One survivor in the film, Queen, talks about the threat of her assault and how it came from an attitude of “rape isn’t rape if it’s to teach black lesbians a lesson.” This is especially the case if a woman is masculine identified. “When it comes to lesbians,” says Ms. Simmons, “the insistence that she is put in her place is particularly strong. She has to be shown that she is not a man. She is not a peer. She is a woman and thus a receptacle for whatever a man wants from her…

]]>http://notherapedocumentary.org/sarah-jane-stratford-converses-with-aishah-shahidah-simmons-about-ending-rape-culture/feed0http://notherapedocumentary.org/sarah-jane-stratford-converses-with-aishah-shahidah-simmons-about-ending-rape-cultureAishah Shahidah Simmons partners with Spelman College in their HBCU Fight to end Sexual Violence against Womenhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NoTheRapeDocumentary/~3/H9Ag8r9H_k0/aishah-shahidah-simmons-partners-with-spelman-college-in-their-hbcu-fight-to-end-sexual-violence-against-women
http://notherapedocumentary.org/aishah-shahidah-simmons-partners-with-spelman-college-in-their-hbcu-fight-to-end-sexual-violence-against-women#commentsWed, 24 Apr 2013 23:04:05 +0000adminhttp://notherapedocumentary.org/aishah-shahidah-simmons-partners-with-spelman-college-in-their-hbcu-fight-to-end-sexual-violence-against-womenAishah Shahidah Simmons partners with Spelman College’s Women’s Research and Resource Center’s HBCU Fight to end Sexual Violence against Women

On Thursday, April 25, 2013, Aishah Shahidah Simmons will return to Spelman College’s campus to present NO! The Rape Documentary and participate in a conversation with representatives from Men Stopping Violence; and Spelman and Morehouse college students focused on addressing and ending sexual assault and violence against women on college campuses. This event, which will be held at 7:00pm in the Cosby Auditorium on the college’s campus, is a part of a series of events happening on at least 10 Historically Black Colleges and Universities. It is free and open to the public. The screening and discussion is hosted by the Spelman College’s Women’s Research and Resource Center (WRRC), which was founded by Black feminist scholar and activist Dr. Beverly Guy-Sheftall in 1981. The WRRC has been long-term supporter of NO! from conception to completion and distribution.

April 22, 2013 marks the first day of The Feminist Wire’s (TFW) 10-day Forum on Race, Racism, an Anti-Racism within Feminism. Over the next eleven days, TFW will publish essays, love notes and art work as part of a continuation of a decades…in actuality, centuries-long painful, difficult, and yet, very necessary dialogue amongst and between feminists of color and white feminists. Please visit TFW daily throughout the duration of this Forum (and beyond); and please spread the word to your networks about the Forum.

Following is an extended excerpt from the Introduction, which was coauthored by TFW Editorial Collective members Aishah Shahidah Simmons and Heather Laine Talley.

Perhaps in this twenty-four hour news cycle culture, the horrid sexist and racist sexualization of nine-year old QuvenzhanéWallis both at the Academy Awards and in Twittersphere is now old news. And maybe for her sake, it should be.

White feminists’ silence in the face of racism is old news too, but feminism’s troubled relationship with race and racism is something to keep talking about. It was the reaction to Tressie McMillan’s analysis of white feminists’ response to the attacks on Quvenzhané Wallis that ignited our interest in hosting this Forum on Race, Racism, and Anti-Racism within Feminism. To be sure, The Feminist Wire has been engaged in these conversations since our founding, but what McMillan’s piece noted was the yawning vacuum of public response to misogyny directed at a Black girlchild.

Many white feminists jettisoned the opportunity to think about silence as racism. Instead, they cited examples of white women’s response to defend against the critique of white silence. While it is true that some white feminists publicly responded, the very impulse to deny a pattern of silence sidesteps critical feminist and anti-racist work. The legacy of feminism has taught us to ask: in what ways am I oppressed and marginalized? In thinking about race, racism, and anti-racism within feminism, an equally important question is: in what ways do I oppress and marginalize?

We come to this introduction as Collective members, but we have divergent relationships to the very topics we’re exploring in this Forum. We are a Black feminist lesbian and a white, anti-racist, queer feminist who are committed to a vision of feminism that is fundamentally intersectional. We resist the pull to participate in the “oppression olympics” (as coined by Native American feminist scholar-activist Andrea Smith) because we firmly believe that none of us are free until all of us are free.

Given white feminists’ palpable silences in response both to individual acts of racism and to an enduring pattern of white supremacy, our investment in this project is shaped by a specific ethic–we reject the idea that white women can “opt out” of this conversation or instinctively fall back on defensiveness. If our feminism aims for liberation, the discomfort of doing the work cannot function in the service of sid-stepping this difficult dialogue, avoiding self-reflection, or putting either off until later. Later is now.

Here, we want to make TFW’s position abundantly clear: Silence in the face of racism is never justified. In fact, silence in the face of any form of oppression or marginalization is never justified.

And yet, feminist silences are, all too often, racialized. Thus, in the context of talking feminism and race, our relative position to feminism depends upon whether feminism unmodified stands for white women.

…This is an attempt to reexamine race and racism from multiple feminist perspectives. To be sure, this is not a Black-white dialogue. This is not a cisgender dialogue. It is not exclusively academic in nature nor entirely activist in spirit. It is multi-voiced, even as it is not representative. It is a conversation that pre-dates all of us, even as it is a dialogue that is no less important now than in previous iterations of feminism, from the suffragettes exclusion of African-American women to the whiteness of the sex wars, to white feminism’s response to and engagement with transnational feminism.

A theme emerges in this Forum–white folks will be called out. And not just because of white silence to recent events, but also because our time is one that is shaped through and through by white supremacy. White privilege may be diluted by class, geography, ability, sexuality, gender identity. And yet, the structural underpinnings of the institutions that inscribe our lives and everyday patterns of seeing and talking are bound together by a legacy of racism, the overvaluation of white bodies at other humans’ expense, and policies intended to promote thriving for white folks.

…This Forum is certainly not meant to be the definitive statement on race, racism, and anti-racism within feminism. TFW is committed to cultivating an ongoing dialogue, and so even as we start this Forum, we know that this is only the start of a long-term and potentially difficult conversation, part of which we will continue to publish…”

]]>http://notherapedocumentary.org/across-liberation-toward-difference-dismantling-racism-within-feminism/feed0http://notherapedocumentary.org/across-liberation-toward-difference-dismantling-racism-within-feminismPhiladelphia Queer Media Activism Series Features Aishah Shahidah Simmonshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NoTheRapeDocumentary/~3/XuBNEoGm3Rg/philadelphia-queer-media-activism-series-features-aishah-shahidah-simmons
http://notherapedocumentary.org/philadelphia-queer-media-activism-series-features-aishah-shahidah-simmons#commentsMon, 25 Mar 2013 15:20:49 +0000adminhttp://notherapedocumentary.org/philadelphia-queer-media-activism-series-features-aishah-shahidah-simmonsAishah Shahidah Simmons is one of the featured artists in the 2013 Philadelphia Queer Media Activism Series

“What is the relationship between queer media and queer activism? How have queers, trans* folks, feminists, people of color, poor people, and people with disabilities harnessed media production practices in the service of social justice activism? How have local Philadelphia artists, activists, and academics mobilized to create films, video artworks, performances, training workshops, and courses that stretch beyond the local context and into the transnational public sphere? The Queer Media Activism series explores these questions through a multimedia, multidisciplinary, and multi-sited series of events during Spring 2013.” ~ Philadelphia Queer Media Activism Series

Philadelphia Queer Media Activism Series Launches on March 30, 2013. Conceived and organized by Dr. Cathy Hannabach, this diverse interdisciplinary series, which is free and open to the public, will include performance, film screenings, and talks on “Drag Activism,” “Social Justice Media Making” “Marginal Bodies, Queer Migrations,” and “Archives, Affects, and Activism.”

On Monday, April 1, 2013, from 12:00PM – 2:00PM, artists-activists Aishah Shahidah Simmons and Monica Enriquez-Enriquez will screen excerpts of their previously completed work and engage in a conversation about their media work, which uses an intersectional lens to explore race, immigration and migration, sexuality, gender, and gender violence, among other topics. This event will be held at Temple University, 812 Anderson Hall, 1114 W. Pollett Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19122.

Remembering and Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Black Feminist Writer, Teacher, Organizer, Mother, Filmmaker, Cultural Worker Extraordinaire on the 74th Anniversary of her birth.

(Toni and Aishah Shahidah Simmons in October 1994 at the Hatch-Billops Collection in New York, photo ~ Michael Simmons)

“The task of the artist is determined always by the status and process and agenda of the community that it already serves. If you’re an artist who identifies with, who springs from, who is serviced by or drafted by a bourgeois capitalist class then that’s the kind of writing you do. Then your job is to maintain status quo, to celebrate exploitation or to guise it in some lovely, romantic way. That’s your job. If you’re a writer in Cuba, postrevolutionary Cuba, your job is to celebrate the triumph of the national will. If you’re a writer coming out of Kenya, the postindependent era in Kenya, your job is relaly to critique the failure of class struggle in Kenya and to tell the truth and to try and share a vision of what that society should be like if they’re gonna really liberate themselves.

As a cultural worker who belongs to an oppressed people my job is to make revolution irresistible. One of the ways I attempt to do that is by celebrating those victories within the [B]lack community. And I think the mere fact that we’re still breathing is a cuase for celebration. Also, my job is to critique the reactionary behavior within the community and to keep certain kinds of calls out there: the children, our responsibility of children, our responsibility to maintain some kind of continuity from the past. But I think for any artist your job is determined by the community you’re identifying with.

But in this country (US) we’re not encourage and equipped at any particular time to view things that way. And so the artwork or the art practice that sells a capitalist ideology is considered art and anything that deviates from that is considered political propagandist, polemical or didactic, strange, weird, subversive, or ugly.” ~ Toni Cade Bambara interviewed by Kay Bonetti, 1982

Aishah Shahidah Simmons’ extemporaneous (in spite of prepared comments) acceptance speech “It’s the community from which you come that you want to name you, claim you and honor you.” ~ Toni Cade Bambara (Teacher and Big Sister Friend)

Acceptance speech, which included my paying tribute to my Dad (Michael Simmons) who was the first person who supported my emerging Black lesbian identity when I was a teenager and my Mom (Dr. Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons) who was the first Black feminist I ever met.

If someone calls you a lesbian and you’re not one, don’t act as if you’ve been called a German Shepard….

“It is important that those of us who are able, because many are not, break our silences about our sexual assaults. (When I was 19 years-old) I was raped one night and less than 24-hours had consensual sex with another man and became pregnant. I am fortunate that I was able to have a safe and legal abortion…”

“Those of us who stand outside the circle of this society’s definition of acceptable women; those of us who have been forged in the crucibles of difference – those of us who are poor, who are lesbians, who are Black, who are older – know that survival is not an academic skill. It is learning how to stand alone, unpopular and sometimes reviled, and how to make common cause with those others identified as outside the structures in order to define and seek a world in which we can all flourish. It is learning how to take our differences and make them strengths.”- Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider

]]>http://notherapedocumentary.org/happy-79th-birthday-audre-lorde/feed0http://notherapedocumentary.org/happy-79th-birthday-audre-lorde“Saying NO! Is Not a Betrayal,” an interview with Aishah Shahidah Simmonshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NoTheRapeDocumentary/~3/fowAjPn3bBE/saying-no-is-not-a-betrayal-an-interview-with-aishah-shahidah-simmons
http://notherapedocumentary.org/saying-no-is-not-a-betrayal-an-interview-with-aishah-shahidah-simmons#commentsSat, 26 Jan 2013 03:41:16 +0000adminhttp://notherapedocumentary.org/saying-no-is-not-a-betrayal-an-interview-with-aishah-shahidah-simmonsPeace X Peace highlights Aishah Shahidah Simmons’ work in their January 24, 2013 edition of “Voices from the Frontlines” blog

On Friday, January 24, 2013, Peace X Peace, an international non-profit organization that raises women’s voices and builds cultures of peace in over 120 countries worldwide, highlighted Aishah Shahidah Simmons’ anti-rape activism in their weekly edition of “Voices from the Frontlines,” in a piece entitled, “Saying NO! Is Not a Betrayal.”

In the midst of hectic scheduling all around, Peace X Peace staff person Nawal Rajeh and Aishah made time to talk about about a myriad of topics including the origins of NO!, the responses to NO! once it was completed, advice for (heterosexual) men who want to work toward ending rape, and Aishah’s hope for the future of the anti-sexual violence movement.

Here’s an excerpt,

The idea started in the early 90’s Mike Tyson was accused and charged of raping an African American woman. At that point, many African American leaders were enraged that she came forward and accused him. I myself am a survivor, but when I started the process of this film, I didn’t think it had anything to do with me. I wanted to help black women break the silence that exists, as it does in so many communities. We don’t want to make our community look bad. What that means is we don’t want to make men look bad? There’s a lot of pressure put on women that come forward because they are viewed as being traitors of black men. I’m looking at the making of NO! with a lot of hindsight. Making NO! saved my life. I can’t imagine my life without having made it. I’m not in it, but I am throughout it- through the stories of the other women. It most definitely saved me- it took me through hell and back. The level of my being out about as sexual assault survivor in terms of where I was then and where I am now makes me feel like I have the responsibility to be out about the complexities of sexual assault. One of the main requirements for every survivor featured in NO! was that they would have to be willing to have their face shown and full name displayed on camera. The reason behind this was that I wanted to convey the message that there should be no shame in having been raped. My goal was to inspire and ignite other survivors to come forward. My firm belief is that the shame should be on the perpetrators.

[Over a two-day period, The Feminist Wire Collective Members Aishah Shahidah Simmonsand Monica J. Casper shared an e-dialogue about abortion, feminism, family, shame, love, friendship, and the way forward. Here is the largely unedited transcript of their exchange, shared publicly in recognition of the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade.--TFW Editors]

January 22, 2013 was the 40th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade. It was also my first day of teaching the graduate/undergraduate seminar entitled, Audre Lorde: The Life and Work of a Silence Breaker. In the tradition of both of the aforementioned, I wasthrilled to honor my commitment to consistently break my silence and release my shame. I am grateful that my Sister-Comrade, Monica Casper invited me to have this e-dialogue with her. Here’s an excerpt of what I shared and Monica’s response during our deeply intimate dialogue, which womanifests the saying “the personal is political”:Aishah: “… All of this is happening as I very literally prepare to teach this seminar on Lorde’s life, in the 20th anniversary year of the completion of my first short video Silence…Broken, which was created in a Toni Cade Bambara scriptwriting workshop at Scribe Video Center. And, it is dedicated to the life and work of Audre Lorde… (I firmly believe that) NONE OF THIS would have happened or would be going on had I not been able to have an abortion…I should also share that my rape followed by consensual sex with another man happened while on a study abroad program in my sophomore year in college. I was so distraught about everything, which was rooted in my trauma and underscored by my internalized homophobia…I felt as if I couldn’t breathe…My making the decision to drop out of college shortly after the rape/sex/pregnancy/abortion, which was followed by my coming out as a lesbian one year later, enabled me to forge ahead with my then unknown trajectory…

I’m thinking about so much shame that I’ve carried connected to my rape, consensual sex, pregnancy, abortion, dropping out of college…It’s very intense in the context of developing a syllabus about breaking silences IN SPITE OF the fear….

…I often wonder if I did carry my pregnancy to term, would I have come out as a PROUD Black feminist lesbian or would I’ve been afraid and concerned about what that would mean for the unborn? Would I have made NO! The Rape Documentary? …. Who knows? Even if the answers are yes, what I know is that it wouldn’t be what it is today….

These are the stories and dialogues that we don’t get to have because we’re so busy fighting the surge of the Right Wing to take away all of our reproductive rights. We often don’t get to hear the nuances, the complexities, the back stories…For many on the rabid (my words) Right, it’s as if women are incubators for fetuses and receptacle for (unwanted) penises….”

Monica: One of my very best therapists ever, in San Francisco, was writing her dissertation on shame. She had this gorgeous argument about how shame was such a driving force for so many of us, both in what we do and what we don’t do. Heather [Talley] and I have talked about writing a piece together on the neoliberal university and its strategies of shame, disavowal, and retribution…and those three words resonate so well not just with neoliberalism run amok in higher ed, but also in patriarchy. Women are repeatedly and often quite violently shamed, disavowed, and made to serve retribution…this is written in our bones, our uteruses, our psyches.

Not being ashamed seems like such a gift to self. Living, writing, teaching away the shame…

I remember *all* of the funders, public and major cable television networks who questioned if NO! would be relevant and/or useful to people in “Middle America” since the film *only* focused on Black women, sexual violence, and healing as if our (Black women’s) survivor testimonies and healing can’t speak to this universal global atrocity. In spite of the the naysayers, there are numerous examples of NO! and her supplemental materials resonating with thousands of diverse people across the United States, Canada, and in countries in Europe, Africa, Asia, The Pacific Islands, South America and the Caribbean.

I’ve definitely posted this video several times on my both of tumblr blogs and elsewhere. However, it feels most appropriate to post (again) today (December 9, 2012) because this is the 17th anniversary of Toni Cade Bambara’s transition from the physical realm to the spirit realm

Dedicated to the living legacy of Toni Cade Bambara, “For Women of Rage & Reason” is both a stand alone video & it’s closing sequence of NO! The Rape Documentary. (Read my post on Toni’s insights on Women and Rage)

Toni Cade Bambara was a catalyst for the creation of NO! The Rape Documentary through her profound insights on “Women and Rage.” In one of my last scriptwriting workshops with Toni Cade Bambara, at Scribe Video Center, the vision for what evolved into NO! The Rape Documentary was fully conceived. In Toni’s workshop, I expressed tremendous frustration and difficulty with transforming my thoughts and my feelings in my head about NO! to images on paper.In class Toni challenged me to go home and “free style” my feeling about NO!.She followed up with a voice mail message telling me not to come to class empty handed. That evening my choreopoem “A State of Rage”** was conceived in my apartment.

In response to my choreopoem “A State of Rage,”** Toni wrote the following:

“…Your piece can be useful in giving women permission to be enraged and outraged. An angry woman, like a laughing woman, is often perceived as a danger to status quo. A laughing woman might be laughing because she sees the hoax, the ridiculousness of the set up, and may next use her humor to point a finger and bring the whole thing down. An angry woman may be angry because she has peeped the scene and will now use her rage to mobilize others to topple the regime. Both kinds of women are threats and are therefore called “mad,” “out of control,” “strident.” We are taught(women especially) that anger and rage are unhealthy that we need to muffle it; medicate it, deny it, flee it. You clearly don’t think so. Good. Apathy, despair, and amnesia would be the unhealthy responses in the project’s “universe,” and anger the most use-full.

Rage is fuel. It can leave the person smoldering. It can consume the angry one. Or it can locomote the feeling toward foolishness or usefulness. It can be a tool with which to access the power of the unconscious. It can point a way as well as point a finger, your piece seems to say.

We don’t usually associate rage (scary, noisy, frightening), with meditation (contemplation, solitude, tranquil) thus you have an opportunity to harness seeming contraires to produce surprises.

(Aishah) you have a very powerful project here, and you’ve clarified to yourself the most import issues—where you are in relation to material, what your motive impulse is, what you hope to effect, what content elements are available as a vehicle. Do start laying in some images. If you are having trouble generating visual sequences, trust your voice and simply begin as you intended to narrate the whole piece; then go back and substitute what we will see for what we can hear. Hope this has been helpful… -Toni” ~ (from) Asserting My In(ter)dependence: The Evolution of NO!, Savoring the Salt: The Legacy of Toni Cade Bambara, Linda Janet Holmes and Cheryl A. Wall, editors

Postscript: What’s fascinating to me is that I wrote “A State of Rage” a full 8-years before I took my first Vipassana Meditation course. Today, 18-years after my penning “A State of Rage,” and 10-years after my first course, I experientially know what “Rage. Meditation. Action. Healing.” fully means. While “A State of Rage” was definitely the road map for NO!, it was also the road map, which led me to an anicient non-sectarian technique, that consistently plays a pivotal role in my being fully-well.

Today (December 9, 2012) marks the 17th anniversary of the physical transition of Toni Cade Bambara, who was a cultural worker extraordinaire (daughter, mother, award-winning author, screenwriter, teacher, activist, community organizer). If you don’t know who she is, Savoring the Salt: The Legacy of Toni Cade Bambara, edited by Linda Janet Holmes and Cheryl A. Wall, really gives one the opportunity to get a grasp of the impact of her contribution to make this world a more humane place and her ongoing living legacy.

“I was fortunate…blessed to have Toni’s presence in my life at such a critical time in my life.In February 1990, at the very ripe age of 20, I shared my feelings of alienation, and inadequacy at Swarthmore College combined with my frustration with the racist and sexist Eurocentric film department at Temple University– things like watching and critiquing camera techniques, without any social commentary, of films like “Birth of A Nation” and “Imitation of Life” with Toni.After hearing my frustration and disappointment with my undergraduate studies at Temple University, Toni told me to come to a place called Scribe Video Center to take her scriptwriting workshop.I told Toni I didn’t have any additional money to take a scriptwriting workshop. Her response was “I didn’t ask you if you had any money, I told you to come to Scribe Video Center and take my scriptwriting workshop.”Toni’s response forever changed my life.Foremost it marked the beginning of one of my most profound mentorship’s that lasted, in the physical form, until she made her physical transition on December 9, 1995.Secondly and equally as important, it marked my introduction to this place called Scribe Video Center…” ~ Aishah Shahidah Simmons, Asserting my In(ter)dependence: The Evolution of NO!, Savoring the Salt: The Legacy of Toni Cade Bambara

]]>http://notherapedocumentary.org/celebrating-toni-cade-bambara-on-the-17th-anniversary-of-her-physical-transition/feed0http://notherapedocumentary.org/celebrating-toni-cade-bambara-on-the-17th-anniversary-of-her-physical-transitionCelebrate the Life of Aaronette M. White at Charis Books and More on October 27, 2012http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NoTheRapeDocumentary/~3/xZN6TumJ0AI/celebrate-the-life-of-aaronette-m-white-at-charis-books-and-more-on-october-27-2012
http://notherapedocumentary.org/celebrate-the-life-of-aaronette-m-white-at-charis-books-and-more-on-october-27-2012#commentsSat, 20 Oct 2012 21:29:54 +0000adminhttp://notherapedocumentary.org/celebrate-the-life-of-aaronette-m-white-at-charis-books-and-more-on-october-27-2012Celebrating the life and legacy of Aaronette M. White, a radical Pan African Feminist Scholar and Activist in Atlanta on October 27, 2012

It is hard to believe that beloved Daughter/Sister/Friend/Comrade/Scholar/Teacher Activist Aaronette M. White, Ph.D. is no longer with us in the physical realm. Those who knew and were close to her are frequently reminded in myriad of ways that she is with us in the spiritual realm.

If you have not had the privilege of knowing Aaronette or encountering her radically fierce legacy, Aishah Shahidah Simmons wrote a personal remembrance, for The Feminist Wire, which celebrated Aaronette’s indelible imprint on many throughout the world. Here is the link to “Remember and Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Aaronette M. White” ~

Keeping with the radical feminist mission of its programming, the October 20, 2012 edition of Women’s Media Center Live with Robin Morgan featured feminists who are using their journalism, cultural work, activism, and art to tackle issues, celebrate the lives, and uplift the voices that that mainstream media is not interested in covering. Paraphrasing Morgan,

in this 24 hour, 7 days week, 365 a day non-stop news cycle, “breaking news” for almost all U.S. networks isn’t about most of the people in the world.

Women’s Media Center Live with Robin Morgan, joins the small but valiant and courageous chorus of a few who counteract the “white, straight, middle to upper class male news white out.”

The October 20, 2012 edition of the program highlighted:

1). The pioneering work of Palestinian Feminist journalist and radio pioneer Maysoun Odeh who is the founder of the 1st FM Radio in Palestine.

Alice Walker and Pearl Cleage at Emory

“Filmed October 2, 2012. Atlanta-based novelist and playwright Pearl Cleage joins writer Alice Walker for a conversation that focuses on their creative influences, the writers they read, and how they’ve been inspired by each other’s work. The conversation, hosted by Rosemary Magee, is moderated by University of Georgia journalism professor and author Valerie Boyd.”

Are Available for Free Viewing!

You may watch parts or even all of day one of Hunter College’s herstoric/historic gathering, which held a multi-day celebration in honor of the life and living legacy of Audre Lorde in the 20th anniversary year of her transition into the next realm.

Day one was held at Hunter College’s Roosevelt House on Friday, October 12, 2012. The entire (recorded) proceedings from the day one are available for viewing

African-Americans to Consistently Speak Out

Against Homophobia

In 2008, Michael Simmons, an international human rights activist and Aishah Shahidah Simmons’s father who, with his partner Linda Carranza, co-founded the Raday Salon in Budapest Hungary, wrote comments about his thoughts on the responsibility of African-Americans who are heterosexual to consistently speak out against homophobia. To celebrate both the first day of National LGBTQ History Month (October) and the forthcoming National Coming Out Day (October 11), I’m reposting what he wrote. Following are his comments:

“Unlike racism towards African-Americans, many of us (African-Americans), while being tolerant, look the other way when we see and hear homophobia. It’s not unlike how “liberal” White people look the other way when they see and hear racism. We allow people to quote ignorant and hateful words if they come out of some religious text. We fail to challenge our friends, family, spiritual leaders, and neighbors when they articulate some ignorant view of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender folks. Indeed we will often defend their right to be hateful while we are (rightfully) pissed off at racist behavior of years gone by.

We are willing to deny people health care and other benefits solely based on their (non-heterosexuality). We will accuse lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people of being petty and just looking out for “their interests,” as if they are less than human beings. Folks often get pissed off at the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community when they press liberal politicians to address their rights fearing a backlash–a position we (heterosexual African-Americans) would not tolerate if it were race.

We all walk around quoting Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., saying that ‘an injury to one is an injury to all’ while often telling the African-American lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community to shut the hell up and wait until we are ready to deal with this lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender stuff. One does not have to be lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender or even like LGBT folks to just leave them the hell alone and allow them to enjoy life. That is all most of us ask for ourselves. It shouldn’t be a complicated process for anyone, regardless of their sexual orientation, to fight for LGBT people to have the same exact rights and benefits that heterosexual people receive. [Human rights for all] ain’t profound. It is only profound when those folks who have any power don’t want to share it with all.”

]]>http://notherapedocumentary.org/michael-simmons-challenges-homophobia-in-african-american-communities/feed0http://notherapedocumentary.org/michael-simmons-challenges-homophobia-in-african-american-communitiesHunter College Celebrates Audre Lorde’s Life and Legacy 20 Years Laterhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NoTheRapeDocumentary/~3/_ekNwkc7h8I/hunter-college-celebrates-audre-lordes-life-and-legacy-20-years-later
http://notherapedocumentary.org/hunter-college-celebrates-audre-lordes-life-and-legacy-20-years-later#commentsSun, 30 Sep 2012 22:58:48 +0000adminhttp://notherapedocumentary.org/hunter-college-celebrates-audre-lordes-life-and-legacy-20-years-laterWomen And Gender Studies Program Of CUNY Hunter College
Co-Sponsored by English And Film And Media Departments
With Generous Support From
The Office Of The President And Provost present:

Celebration Audre Lorde (20 Years Later)

Hunter College will celebrate the life and legacy of the self-defined Black Femnist Lesbian Mother Warrior Poet Audre Lorde. This celebration will commemorate the 20th Anniversary Year of Audre Lorde’s transition from the physical realm into the spirit realm.

The opening celebration, which will be held on Friday, October 12, 2012 will include performances and commentaries by Audre Lorde’s daughter, some of her dearest friends, comrades, colleagues and former students, along with the next generation of activists, cultural workers, and scholars whose work is greatly influenced by Lorde’s radical Black lesbian feminist legacy

Unfortunately the October 12, 2012 event is completely filled to capacity. However, people unable to attend will be able to see the entire day on the web through the live streaming website for the conference.

There are still plenty of seats available for the mini-festival, which will also celebrate Audre Lorde’s Legacy. These screenings will be held on Saturday, October 13, 2102 and Tuesday, October 16, 2012.

Please scroll down to read the entire schedule for all of the events, which are free and open to the public.

DUE TO HIGH DEMAND FOR THIS OCT. 12th EVENT, REGISTRATION HAS REACHED CAPACITY AND IS NOW CLOSED!However, people unable to attend will be able to see the entire day on the web through the live streaming website for the conference.

Location:
Hunter CollegeSilberman School of Social Work/CUNY School of Public Health at Hunter College
2180 Third Avenue at 119th Street
2nd Floor Auditorium
New York, NY 10035

Filmmaker Dagmar Schultz and Ika Huegel-Marshall, co-writer of the film script and protagonist in the film, as well as recipient of the Audre Lorde Literary Award for her book “Invisible Woman; Growing Up Black in Germany,” will be present at the screening and will lead the Q & A.

On Thursday, August 23, 2012, L’Erin Alta-Devki, Creatix of SisterFire, published an edited short segment of her hour long interview with Aishah Shahidah Simmons. L’Erin and Aishah talked about making art, building sacred community, trusting your inner voice and following your inner spirit even in the face of financial challenges.

During their conversation L’Erin and Aishah discussed the importance of:

The community that names you

Listening to your inner spirit

Maintaining personal integrity even in the face of financial need

How ‘NO!’ helped her create global community

Aishah shared how she continued to move forward with this labor of love known as NO! The Rape Documentary, even when the world around her said she was done – it was time to move on.

This conversation is part of SisterFire.com Trailblazer Thursday’s where L’Erin features her fireside chats with “wild women, HOT luminaries – and legends in the making.” During this series, L’Erin shares an edited segment from her extended interviews. Each segment features the perspectives from a wide range of diverse and radical women who grapple with and tackle issues that have the power to shift/alter societal norms and centralize the margins.

We have always known. We have known and have known better and have done worse. We have known the choking pain of silence. We have known denial and fear and we have not believed in each other. We have known and we have laughed to distract our knowing. Drank to dampen our knowing. Eaten to muffle our knowing. Straved to shake off our knowing. Worked to unearn what we know. But we have always known.

In our bodies, we know that we deserve each other–liberated, whole, cherished, complicated, and listening. We deserve each other unafraid, unbruised, unchained. We deserve each other strong and safe. We deserve each other today. Right now. Ask your shoulder to consult your heart. Ask your heart to check in with the pit of your stomach. Your body will speak in consensus: We have always known.

Community Accountability: Emerging Movements to Transform Violence, a special issue of Social Justice: A Journal of Crime, Conflict & World Order opens with those four words “We have always known,” charting the critique and rejection of state violence to correct, stop, or repair interpersonal acts of violence back to Ida B. Wells and earlier. This special issue, in the genealogy of INCITE: Women of Color Against Violence’s role of intervening in, clarifying, and amplifying the contours of a women of color led movement to transform violence in ways that center the lives, wellness, and communities of women of color, checks in on more than a decade of work explicitly looking at the intersections of state violence and interpersonal violence by lifting up the work of those people who have been bringing this critique into practice experimentally and imperfectly into their daily lives, into their communities, into our very bodies.

I am one of the people that the women of color led movement to transform violence back into nourishing everyday love has hailed, transformed, and reclaimed. Through my work with UBUNTU and the Durham Harm Free Zone, I am one of those messy, experimental collaborators seeking to create communion and accountability in the intersecting aspirational communities that shape my life. So I read this special issue with the laughter of recognition, the gratitude of affirmation, hunger to apply the lessons other comrades experimenting elsewhere have learned, and the critical eye that is the responsibility of those of us inciting the righteous future…

“Catalyzing Possibility: The NO! Film Documentary as Community Accountability Technology,” an in-depth interview with Theryn Kigmavasud’Vashti, and Aishah Shahidah Simmons, which was organized, conducted, and transcribed by Alisa Bierria is featured in the special issue of this journal.

Phillis Wheatley, the first African American published poet, died at age 31. The strength of her work and the courage of her being did not protect her from sickness during a cold Boston winter. Legendary scholars like Audre Lorde, June Jordan, Barbara Christian, Nellie McKay, Elizabeth Amelia Hadley, and most recently Aaronette M. White died long before their time. Some Black Feminist visionaries sell their labor to the university for stability and healthcare benefits. Many Black Feminist visionaries believe that the racial politics and institutional and intellectual violence of the university are carcinogenic. To rephrase Barbara Smith’s question at the 1976 MLA convention: Is it possible to be a Black woman academic and live?

As another early dead genius, Toni Cade Bambara, asks us at the start of her novel The Salt Eaters, are we sure we want to be well? This forum organized by The Feminist Wire asks us to engage whether and how we want to be well. Engaging research and writing on health outcomes of Black Women Academics, concepts of self-care, legacies of Black women navigating the academy, disparities research, and personal reflections, we want to know what you think. What is possible? What is necessary? What does our work mean to us and what is it worth? How can allies and the larger structures better support and sustain healthy lives? What narratives of sacrifice are we inheriting and passing on? What does wellness feel like, anyway? And how can we know?

Please submit essays, stories, or research briefs of up to 1,500 words to info@thefeministwire.com by October 5, 2012. Also include a brief bio and a picture. [Note: This issue will be the first of several theme issues to address the health of various communities of women of color, LGBTQ health, and the health of gender non-conforming people.]

If I had your home address, I would mail you this thank you note. I’m not sending it to your St. Louis senatorial campaign because I don’t consider this letter a political act, but an expression of personal gratitude.

Frankly, I’m relieved that you’ve revealed what you truly believe about how women’s bodies perform when they are being sexually violated. Thank you for admitting that you—a member of the House Science and Technology committee, an outspoken critic of Obamacare and a radical anti-choice lawmaker who has co-sponsored legislation that would redefine rape—have been relying on misogynist junk science. It’s good to know that you, a former board member of Missouri Right to Life and an elected official who speaks on the intricacies of conception, have been operating under the illusion that only “legitimate” rape leads to pregnancy…*

She highlights Ms. Simmons’s ‘brief history lesson’ to contextualize the present-day assaults on women’s bodies.

Beginning with J. Marion Sims, M.D. the “father” of modern-day gynecology who in the 19th century, conducted unspeakable surgical experimentation without anethesia on the bodies of countless enslaved Black women for the benefit of science, to Rosie Jimenez who became the first woman to die of an illegal abortion because she could not afford a legal one after the 1977 passage of the Hyde Amendment, [history] shows that it is the most marginalized women who will continue to be severely impacted by these inhumane, virulent [attacks] on women’s reproductive freedom and justice made by predominantly wealthy White men.

]]>http://notherapedocumentary.org/akiba-solomon-joins-chorus-of-women-of-color-feminist-journalists-who-speak-out-against-rep-todd-akin/feed0http://notherapedocumentary.org/akiba-solomon-joins-chorus-of-women-of-color-feminist-journalists-who-speak-out-against-rep-todd-akinAaronette M. White: A Life Well Lived and Gone Too Soonhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NoTheRapeDocumentary/~3/j10J9Tsz0oo/aaronette-m-white-a-life-well-lived-and-gone-too-soon
http://notherapedocumentary.org/aaronette-m-white-a-life-well-lived-and-gone-too-soon#commentsWed, 22 Aug 2012 04:09:38 +0000adminhttp://notherapedocumentary.org/?p=562Remembering and Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Aaronette M. White

Originally published on The Feminist Wire on August 18, 2012by Aishah Shahidah Simmons

It is with deep sadness and profound devastation that I share that radical Black/Pan-African feminist activist and social psychologist Aaronette M. White, Ph.D., recently made her physical transition. While there is presently uncertainty about the exact date and time of her sudden death, no foul play or harm was done to her in the last hours of her life. Her body was found in her apartment on Tuesday, August 14, 2012. The belief is that she suffered an aneurysm. She was 51-years old.
Aaronette was one of my dear and close friends who was also a trusted confidante. I first met her in September 1996 at the Black, Male & Feminist/Womanist conference, which was organized by Black Men for the Eradication of Sexism, a student group at Morehouse College. At that point, I was barely in year two of the twelve-year journey to make my feature-length film NO! The Rape Documentary. Thanks to radical, trailblazing Black feminist scholar-activist, and Big Sister-friend Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Ph.D., who is the founding director of Spelman College’s Women’s Research and Resource Center and their Anna Julia Cooper Professor of Women’s Studies, I was invited to be a presenter at the conference. In remembering that historic gathering, Beverly wrote,

[…]Though not many of us were at Morehouse in 1996 (bell hooks was also there as the keynote speaker), it was a critical moment in the development of a young cohort of brothers who claimed unapologetically their allegiance to [B]lack feminists and FEMINISM!!!!

It was a powerful moment in which some friendships, camaraderies, and allegiances were formed and are still going strong today.

When Aaronette heard that I was making a film about intra-racial rape, other forms of sexual violence, and healing in the Black community, she immediately came up to me at the conference to ask how could she be involved with this project. Shortly after my return home, she sent me a package, which included a donation towards the making of NO!, her curriculum vitae, extensive resources directly related to her ground breaking research and scholarship on anti-rape activism in the Black community. The package also included a letter offering to be involved, for free, in any way possible. This past June, we laughed hysterically during one of our many Sister-friend marathon phone conversations remembering her first mailing to me. Little did she know at the time of sending me her very extensive package in 1996, I was desperate for any and all assistance and expertise in support of the making of NO!. Aaronette literally thought she had to convince me that she would be a wonderful resource for the project. Shortly after receipt of her first of many packages over the years, she became one of the five Black feminist scholar-activist advisors[1] to NO!. Equally as important, Aaronette, was a featured interviewee who shared both her testimony as a survivor of rape; and her scholar-activism on sexual violence on camera. Without expecting anything in return, Aaronette worked tirelessly in support of NO! always looking for ways for me to secure funds to help me cross the finish line; and to spread the word about the making of the documentary. She most generously gave her time both as a scholar-activist and also as one of the consistent trusted shoulders upon which I leaned for ten out of the twelve years it took for me to make NO!.

Aaronette’s activism, scholarship, and writings were frequently ahead of the curve. She constantly championed unsung warrior feminist women who were predominantly of African descent. However, she celebrated the resiliency and (sometimes armed) resistance of all women she defined as freedom fighters.

At the time of her untimely death, Aaronette was working on at least two book projects. One co-edited project with her dear friend and pro-feminist scholar-activist Gary L. Lemons, Ph.D., which is tentatively titled Black Feminist and Womanist Pedagogies: When the Personal is Political and Academic. Based upon my understanding from Aaronette, this book project is an edited collection of previously published and original essays by Black feminist and womanist scholar-activists on their experiences and lessons learned from teaching radical pedagogies in what I personally call the Academic Industrial Complex. I was thrilled when she asked me to write an essay about my experiences teaching an undergraduate course on Diasporic African women filmmakers when I was an Artist-in-Residence at the University of Chicago’s Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture.

The other project, which I believe was presently untitled at the time of her death, was envisioned to be an in-depth comparative study, based upon her first-person interviews with African women war veterans who fought in Ethiopia’s 17-year civil war; in South Africa’s armed wing of the anti-Apartheid struggle; and in the Rwandan army to end the 1994 genocide. Aaronette was concerned that we very rarely, if ever, heard from the voices of African women freedom fighters. Often, while fighting in their countries, many (but definitely not all) of these women warriors were raped by their own male comrades with whom they were fighting. She was also interested in exploring what happened to these African women war veterans after the wars ended. She wanted to know how they were received and treated in their countries. In a Pan-African context, she wanted to lift up their testimonies to add her voice, research, and writings to the growing chorus of diasporic African feminists who challenge the sexist notion that revolution is something that only men wage.
Aaronette’s first book, Ain’t I A Feminist? African American Men Speak Out on Fatherhood, Friendship, Forgiveness, and Freedom (S.U.N.Y. Press, 2008) examined the experiences of African-American men who self identify as feminists. Aaronette’s process with identifying each of the (anonymously) featured men required a personal recommendation from a Black (woman) feminist. Her belief was that it was not enough for a man to believe he was a feminist, she needed to also hear from at least one, but preferably more than one Black feminist to confirm that this was the case. Her second book African Americans Doing Feminism: Putting Theory into Everyday Practice (S.U.N.Y. Press, 2010), is an edited collection of personal stories and testimonials about how feminism has influenced the lives of feminist African-American women and men.

Aaronette lived her life out loud and without apology for her bold, take no prisoners radical feminism. She didn’t suffer fools wisely. The few times we were able to present NO! The Rape Documentary together, she was adamant that the first three questions or comments, immediately post the screening of the film, were from survivors of child sexual abuse and/or sexual violence. She wanted to make sure the voices of survivors were centralized and heard first and foremost. If she thought a person (man or woman) was trying to condone rape especially in the name of playing “devil’s advocate,” she would shut the conversation down immediately. She always did everything that she could to ensure that survivors felt safe and supported, most especially at NO! events where she was present.

A true global citizen, Aaronette became an integral part of the communities she lived in the several countries she called home.
The last time I saw her was in March 2012 when I was in Berkeley, California for a two-day symposium on Gendered Violence Against African American Girls and Young Women, which was hosted by the Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice at University of California, Berkeley School of Law. At the end of the symposium, Aaronette drove up from Santa Cruz and we spent most of one day together. While we were frequently in touch through our marathon phone conversations, we hadn’t seen each other since April 2008. It was a Sister-friend reunion of the highest order. We ate lots of good, organic vegetarian food. And, we laughed so much until we cried tears of joy about being together in person. I will always cherish that time. Recognizing that NO! is a documentary, which very unfortunately is still relevant, we envisioned an opportunity where we might be able to bring all of the survivors, scholars, activists, and/or cultural workers featured in NO!, and the key production and post-production personnel who made NO! for both a screening and public dialogue about all of the issues raised in the film and how it relates to where we are today as a non-monolithic community. Aaronette and I weren’t sure if it should be a one-day or two-day event. We talked about ideas for the location and potential funders who might be interested in supporting this vision.

This summer Aaronette received an endowed chair at University of California, Santa Cruz where she was on the faculty in the psychology department. We were rejoicing because while she was always fortunate to receive some of the most prestigious fellowships for her unapologetically radical work, this was the first time where she felt like would be able to exhale completely. She was in the process of purchasing a condo on (or near the ocean) in Santa Cruz. In fact, she was going to close within the next week or two. And, true to form, Aaronette was strategizing how to support her Sister-friends whose work she believed in and supported. When I casually shared with her that I was scheduled to present at the National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA) annual meeting this November but shared that I had no idea how I would be able finance the trip, she immediately said,

Oh, that’s simple. I’ll bring you out to screen and discuss NO! at U.C. Santa Cruz. You’ll receive your full honorarium; and then we’ll go to NWSA together. Problem solved, Gurl, PROBLEM SOLVED! These are the things I can do now that I have an endowed chair. What better way to use these funds than to talk and educate about Black women and rape.

I first received word about Aaronette’s death on August 15, 2012 from scholar-activist and friend Tamara K. Nopper, Ph.D. Tamara assumed I knew and sent me an email to offer her deeply felt condolences and to thank me for helping to “get [Aaronette’s] story and analysis out there (through NO!).” When I read Tamara’s email, I was in a remote part of Marshall, CA attending a Ms. Foundation for Women sponsored and hosted gathering for invited predominantly women of color and gender queer of color activist-leaders who work on ending child sexual abuse. My cell signal was practically non-existent and internet was not readily accessible at the venue where the gathering was held. I thought there had to be a major mistake. I talked to Aaronette at the end of June, right before I departed for my 35-days off of the grid journey to deepen my 10-year practice of vipassana meditation as taught by S.N. Goenka. We were going to talk when I returned in August. I was going to see her in her new home in November. She wasn’t sick. I had to immediately find a computer with consistent access to the internet. I had to google her name to prove that Tamara made a major mistake. There must’ve been another Aaronette White who transitioned. Much to my horror, Tamara was right. I saw the article, with her photograph, posted on U.C. Santa Cruz’s site.

I am grateful that I was at the Ms. gathering of activist-leaders who work on ending child sexual abuse when I received the (still) shocking news in the form of a heartfelt email from Tamara. While some of the people “knew” Aaronette through her powerful presence in NO!, no one in attendance at the gathering knew her personally. In spite of this we held her name, her life, and her transformative Black feminist legacy up. It was a powerful sacred circle of radical women and transpeople who “spoke her name” and celebrated her contributions to making this world a more just, compassionate, and humane place for all its inhabitants during her lifetime.

While still in California, my friend Cornelius Moore, who’s the co-director of California Newsreel (co-distributor of NO!, with AfroLez® Productions), and I spoke Aaronette White’s name over dinner, through some of the night, and in the morning on my way to the airport home to Philadelphia. He, along with one of her four sisters and best friends Lisa Diane White, who’s the director of programs for SisterLove, Inc., were some of the last people I personally know who spent extended time with Aaronette in July. It was heartwarming to be able to hear poignant and funny stories from both Lisa and Cornelius about Aaronette during what became the last month of her life. The wound from this tremendous loss is very deep and still festering for all of us who knew and loved her. I’m grateful for the community sharing in person, on the phone, and in cyberspace in my first 24-hours of living knowing that I will never see, talk to, cry with, laugh with, celebrate with, and confidentially share with Aaronette Michelle White.

In an August 16, 2012 Facebook post remembering Aaronette, my sister-survivor, dear friend, and poet extraordinaire Honorée Fanonne Jeffers who is one of the three featured poets[2] in NO! wrote,

Aaronette and I were young women, only in our thirties, when we met during a magical weekend in Philadelphia. We had been calledd–”called” is the only word I can think of-by Aishah Shahidah Simmons to appear in the film NO! The Rape Documentary. We had been called to tell our stories as Black women rape survivors. We had been called to break our silence and dispel our shame. We had been called to love each other and accept each other, not to roll our eyes and pick apart each other’s appearances and take out our pain on each other.
I always remember the night Aaronette and I spent talking, her warmth and the way she pulled in others with that warmth. I remember thinking, “THIS woman is a rape survivor?! How can this be? She is so happy and so stylish and so full of good self-awareness.” Meeting Aaronette and spending that weekend with her, Aishah, Salamishah Tillet and others was the beginning of my finding and loving myself…
That weekend was a healing, the beginning of my lifelong journey to embrace self-acceptance, self-love, love for others, and spirituality. I can say with all that is in me that if it hadn’t been for that weekend, I would not be the poet and the woman I am today, and I would not have the happiness and peace I have found within. Aaronette and Aishah were the first Black women of my age (that I didn’t grow up with) who gave me unconditional acceptance. Who made me feel safe, even in the middle of the horrific experience of sharing my story as a rape survivor on film, breaking my silence, and putting aside shame and trauma in order to help other women. In order to help myself…

Echoing Honorée, Beverly [Guy-Sheftall] also captured the sentiments of many who knew Aaronette when she wrote,

[…]Though I didn’t see [Aaronette] enough, she was always on my mind when I thought about the [B]lack feminist community that all of us were able to craft over the years–her smile, her spirit, her wisdom, her productivity, and so much more…

I rejoice knowing that Aaronette’s legacy will live on through all of the lives she personally touched; her radical Black feminist activism, which centralized margins; and her published writings. I am eternally grateful for her powerful presence in NO! and in Breaking Silences. I am also holding on to the vision that one day in the not too distant future, my and Aaronette’s vision of all of the NO! interviewees, performers, and production crew coming together for private sharing, public screening and dialogues. It willwomanifest in Aaronette’s name.

VIVA the life, legacy, fierce, and unapologetic RADICAL BLACK FEMINIST SPIRIT of daughter, sister, friend, comrade, activist, scholar, and teacher Aaronette Michelle White. I will honor her legacy as long as there is conscious breath in my body.

My daughter is an African-American lesbian who made a film on homophobia, racism, and sexism. She was in South Africa for two months monitoring the (first “free and fair”) elections. She was in Mississippi a couple months ago taking pictures of African-American women who struggled in Mississippi. I say that not to brag about her, but to say that she is one of many… ~ Michael Simmons, In My Father’s House

On June 15, 2012, Aishah Shahidah Simmons uploaded her vintage 1996 video In My Father’s House on youtbue to both coincide with Father’s Day weekend and LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer) PRIDE Month. Dedicated to her father and comrade Michael Simmons, In My Father’s House is a documentary short about Aishah’s Black feminist lesbian exploration of her coming out process through self reflection, and candid conversations with her father, her younger brother, Tyree Cinque Simmons, and Yvonne Marie Jones, one of her best friends from high school.

In My Father’s House, was filmed in 1995 and subsequently produced and directed in 1996 by Aishah Shahidah Simmons and edited (salvaged) by Joan Brannon, who is also an associate producer and the director of photography of NO! The Rape Documetnary.

*Trigger Warning* Aishah discusses her rape, her pregnancy, and her safe and legal abortion in this video.

While the production quality is very low, In My Father’s House is one of the first and only videos, which features Aishah’s testimony as a rape survivor on camera. Since its world premiere at the 1997 London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, the video has screened at film festivals, colleges/universities, high schools, conferences and PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbian and Gays) events across the US, in Canada, and countries in Europe.

Michael Simmons, my father, comrade, and friend, was the first man I knew who championed women’s rights and the rights of LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Transgender, Queer) people. All of my and Tyree Cinque Simmons’s (my brother) lives, he taught us that when it comes to the issue of rape and sexual assault, a woman never everloses the right to say “no,” even during the act of sexual intercourse. Long before it was in vogue, my dad was among the few men who took the position that men have an obligation and responsibility to take up with other men the issues of rape, sexual assault, and other forms of violence against women. In my feature length film NO! The Rape Documentary, which unveils the reality of rape, other forms of sexual assault, and healing in African-American communities, he says:

It’s not just enough to be a principled person with women. [Men] have an obligation to challenge the behavior of [their] peers…

A man can go out with a woman. [He] can spend all of his money. She can promise to give it to him. They can go to a room, house, apartment, hotel, or whatever and take a shower together, and start playing around together and start actually doing it. She never looses her right to say no, even during the act.

Similarly he was and is adamant that heterosexual people have an obligation and responsibility to challenge and address heterosexism and homophobia with other straight people. His belief was and is that until the privileged, even within the margins, disturb the peace at the picnics of injustice, none of us will be free.

[…]because of the Civil Rights Movement, and because of the influences of people like Malcolm X, along with some things that were happening in Philadelphia in the early 1960s, I had made up my mind in high school that I didn’t want to go into the military even if there hadn’t been a war, and clearly I wasn’t going to fight anybody. But my intent was to try to avoid the military and jail, because I didn’t want to go to jail either.

When I got out of high school, I did register for the draft, because I didn’t know any better, and then I started college. During my days in college there was no problem, but I went to college for two years and then I dropped out and went down south and joined the Civil Rights Movement. That’s when I started being hassled by the government in terms of reporting [to the draft board] to take my physical, and the other stuff that I was supposed to do.

It was at that point that I started playing games with the draft board. For example, I used to write these very long letters on Black History, and right in the middle of one of these 12 page letters, I would mention a change of address. Unfortunately, the person who was handling my case was rather astute, so that didn’t work…

His refusal to participate in the murder of Vietnamese women, children, and men resulted in him serving 2 ½ years in prison, when, according to him, the average (White) draft case only served 1 ½ years. I was barely five months old when he began serving his term on September 4, 1969. Coincidentally (or karmically), my mother (Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons), his ex-wife and life long comrade, was a member of the first American NGO (non-governmental organization) delegation, sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee[1], to go into Vietnam and Cambodia right after the war ended.

What’s awe inspiring to me about my dad (and my mom) is they work diligently not to rest on their laurels. They keep evolving and transforming. It’s not about what they did 15, 25, 35, or even 45 years ago. It’s about what they are each doing today to make this world a more humane and compassionate place for all of its inhabitants. Centralizing the margins within the margins and resistance against injustice while working for peace and justice everywhere is in my blood.

My daughter is an African-American lesbian who made a film on homophobia, racism, and sexism. She was in South Africa for two months monitoring the (first “free and fair”) elections. She was in Mississippi a couple months ago taking pictures of African-American women who struggle in Mississippi. I say that not to brag about her, but to say that she is one of many…” ~ Michael Simmons, In My Father’s House

I love that Father’s Day is in the same month as LGBTQ Pride. It is literally impossible for me to celebrate Pride without celebrating Dad. For some, it’s hard to grasp that I credit my dad for his role in my being a radical Black feminist lesbian. He, like my Mom, taught me that Black and feminist were not contradictory identities. Equally as important, when I was struggling with coming to terms with my identity as a lesbian, Dad was a lifesaver. In June 2011, on the occasion of my 21st anniversary of being out as a lesbian, I wrote about his life altering contribution to my coming out as a Black feminist lesbian in Reflecting Upon My Twenty-One Years Of Pride, which Scholar/Activist/Cultural Critic Mark Anthony Neal published on his NewBlackMan blog:

[…]When I was eighteen in my senior year in high school struggling with my sexuality, [my father] asked Cheryl Dowton, an out Black lesbian to talk to me about being a lesbian. My father didn’t want me to think that being a lesbian was a bad thing. Equally as important he didn’t want me to think that becoming a lesbian would mean that I would have to give up my racial identity. So it was extremely important to him that I have the opportunity to talk with a Black lesbian about all of my questions, anxieties and fears.

Having the opportunity to talk with Cheryl allowed me to literally see that Black and lesbian were not contradictory identities. Even with my having a girlfriend in my senior year in high school, I was SO afraid that my connecting with Cheryl, didn’t enable me to fully embrace my authentic self until three year later…

In 1996, I produced and directed In My Father’s House, a very grassroots, no budget, short video, which, through self reflection and conversations with my dad, my brother, and Yvonne Marie Jones, one of my best friends in high school, I explored my coming out process.

Since the video’s world premiere at the 1997 London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, my dad has been adamantly vocal that it is only in the context of rampant global heterosexism and homophobia that his both supporting and encouraging his daughter’s coming out process is viewed as profound.

*Trigger Warning* In the video, I discuss my rape (which, in addition to being the result of misogyny and patriarchy, is also the result of internalized and externalized homophobia and heterosexism), my pregnancy, and my safe and legal abortion.

A cinematic perfectionist, I’ve resisted posting In My Father’s House online for years because of its very low production quality. However, given what feels like the never-ending struggles of Black LGBTQ people to be visible and accepted (not solely tolerated) in all of our communities, now feels like the right time to share the video far and wide in cyberspace. I can’t imagine who I would be were it not for my dad doing the compassionately principled act of asking Cheryl Dowton to talk to me when I was in my last year of high school. There are many gifts that I have received from my dad, but the gift of his encouragement, support, and complete acceptance of my being unapologetically out as a Black feminist lesbian is one of those gifts that keeps on giving into perpetuity, in this lifetime.

[1] Founded by Quakers in 1917 to provide conscientious objectors with an opportunity to aid civilian war victims, the American Friends Service Committee’s work attracts the support and partnership of people of many races, religions, and cultures. The organization’s mission and achievements won worldwide recognition in 1947 when it accepted the Nobel Peace Prize with the British Friends Service Council on behalf of all Quakers.

]]>http://notherapedocumentary.org/aishah-shahidah-simmons-celebrates-her-fathers-radical-activism-her-black-feminist-lesbian-identity-on-fathers-day/feed0http://notherapedocumentary.org/aishah-shahidah-simmons-celebrates-her-fathers-radical-activism-her-black-feminist-lesbian-identity-on-fathers-dayThe Feminist Wire’s Forum on Women Filmmakershttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NoTheRapeDocumentary/~3/M8Ch-a8TYOY/the-feminist-wires-forum-on-women-filmmakers
http://notherapedocumentary.org/the-feminist-wires-forum-on-women-filmmakers#commentsWed, 27 Jun 2012 23:42:39 +0000adminhttp://notherapedocumentary.org/the-feminist-wires-forum-on-women-filmmakersAishah Shahidah Simmons was one of the five women featured in The Feminist Wire’s Forum on Women Filmmakers

Read an excerpt of what what they each had to say during their brief interviews. Click on their names to read their interviews in their entirety.

My creative moment is born in reflection and confrontation with my identity and the expression of my relation to the world. I begin to discern the different forms of my creation through the interplay of reason, sensibility and responsibility in a place that is dark, solitary, silent and honest… ~ Carmen Torres

“I think filmmaking is one of the most important mediums to use to generate social change. In regards to documentary work, I think there is nothing more powerful than showing someone the truth. Not telling them, but literally showing them truth with images. Whether this truth is about their community or other communities, etc…” ~ tiona.m.

[...]I credit the late Black feminist cultural worker, organizer, author, and screenwriter Toni Cade Bambara, who was my teacher, mentor, and Big SistaFriend for five years, for my profound understanding that using the camera lens to bring progressive ideas, images, perspectives, and voices from the margins to the center is a form of radical social change and community activism… ~ Aishah Shahidah Simmons

[...]“Despite a constantly evolving process, I find myself returning to film as a meditative medium, as a questioning medium, as a visual essay that a filmmaker can employ to encourage reflection – reflection on ourselves, on society, on the State, on borders and migration, on communication, on the colonization of our minds and bodies, on suffering, on the laws and policy that regulate this suffering, on radical love and reimagining, on existence…” ~ Anna Barsan

[...]I came to filmmaking as an anti-racist, feminist activist. I was motivated by a desire to see stories, faces, and experiences of ‘marginalized’ peoples on mainstream television, and over the years my body of work has continued to centralize diverse LGBT stories and feminist explorations of our histories. Years ago I read a statement by Toni Morrison where she said, “I write the books I want to read”; similarly, I make the films I want to see… ~ Pratibha Parmar

“First, let me say that determining the “plight” of women filmmakers largely depends on what is considered success. I don’t judge the talent or success of myself, or any other woman filmmaker, based on how many awards she has received or whether her film has premiered on HBO. There are spaces where women filmmakers are celebrated, but they are not going to provide the same glitz, glamour, and financial rewards that are afforded to male and other privileged artists. If you’re a socially disadvantaged filmmaker, you really have to respect the craft because there are too many financial and emotional hurdles involved in this process…” ~ Nev Nnaji

]]>http://notherapedocumentary.org/the-feminist-wires-forum-on-women-filmmakers/feed0http://notherapedocumentary.org/the-feminist-wires-forum-on-women-filmmakersAishah Shahidah Simmons, NO! The Rape Documentary, and Healing in Denver, COhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NoTheRapeDocumentary/~3/8-v-0svO5NE/aishah-shahidah-simmons-no-the-rape-documentary-and-healing-in-denver-co
http://notherapedocumentary.org/aishah-shahidah-simmons-no-the-rape-documentary-and-healing-in-denver-co#commentsTue, 05 Jun 2012 02:00:08 +0000adminhttp://notherapedocumentary.org/aishah-shahidah-simmons-no-the-rape-documentary-and-healing-in-denver-coThree days of events focusing on both eradicating gender-based violence and healing from gender-based violence, featuring Aishah Shahidah Simmons and her cultural work in Denver Colorado from June 7, 2012 -
June 9, 2012.

On Thursday, June 7, 2012, ‘XicanIndie Thursday’ presents:

A screening and discussion of NO! The Rape Documentary, the award-winning, internationally-acclaimed, groundbreaking feature length documentary, which explores the international atrocity of rape and sexual violence through the first testimonies of Black women survivors, the scholarship, activism, and cultural work of African-American women and men.

The screening will be held at 7pm at the Su Teatro Cultural and Performing Arts Center. Doors open at 6:30pm

On Friday, June 8, 2012 at Redline Denver, Aishah will read from her essay for the forthcoming anthology Queering Sexual Violence. A reception will follow the reading. There is also an exhibit “Off the Beaten Path: Violence, Women and Art.”

The reading will begin at 7pm.

2350 Arapahoe Street, Denver, CO 80205

On Saturday, June 9, 2012, there will be a healing and activism retreat, which will focus on spiritual and ritual healing resources for women of color. This retreat, for women of color, will highlight the tools Aishah Shahidah Simmons has used and uses on her ongoing healing journey from victim to survivor; and Sofia Chavez Frederick who will (re)introduce participants to Curanderismo and Ancient Traditions.

The retreat will be held from 10:00 am – 4:00 pm at the University Park United Methodist Church, 2180 S. University Boulevard, Denver, CO 80210

I often celebrate and lift up the names of two women–Audre Lorde and Toni Cade Bambara –who are not related to me by blood but whose metaphorical and literal presence had a profound impact on my life. These two women, one of whom I never met and one who became very, very instrumental in my life, transformed me: Audre Lorde, the self-defined Black feminist, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet; and Toni Cade Bambara, the Black feminist, cultural worker, screenwriter, author, who was my teacher, my mentor, and my Big SistaFriend for five years up until her untimely physical transition in 1995. I believe that we are still in dialogue in the Spirit world. Both of these women, their existence, and their work created a path for me to use the moving image and the written word to bring about radical progressive social change in this country and beyond.

This Mother’s Day, however, I want to pay homage to some of the women whose blood is flowing through my veins and upon whose shoulders I stand. I come from a long line of Black women who didn’t use the words “feminist” or “womanist” to describe themselves. However, these women—Lucy Goldsby, Hattie Goldsby Temple, Rhoda Bell Temple-Robinson-Hudson-Douglas, Alice Bostic Simmons, Mattie Garrett Cranford, Maggie Pagen White, Mattie Simmons Brown, Jessie Neal Hudson, Corinne Simmons Trumpler, Lula Simmons Thompson, Corinne White, Rebecca White Simmons Chapman, Juanita Cranford Robinson Watson, Ollie B. Smith, Elizabeth White Patterson, and Helen White (to name a few)—these fierce women were organizers and leaders in their churches, unions, and community organizations. They were survivors of U.S. institutional racism, sexism, and classism, which prevented them from receiving the full formal education they each strongly desired and deserved. And yet, in spite of this egregious reality in their lives, my maternal and paternal (great-great-great) grandmothers and aunts not only persevered in spite of the odds stacked against them because of their race and their gender, some of them made herstory in their communities. To paraphrase Dr. Maya Angelou, “they still rose” through their never-ending fight and struggle against racism, sexism, and classism throughout their lives. These race women carried themselves with non-negotiable dignity and they demanded respect, most especially from the White supremacist establishment.

Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons, Ph.D., my mother, was the first self-defined feminist that I ever knew. I firmly believe that my (great-great-great) grandmothers and aunts were Black feminists/womanists, even though they would never have used those terms to describe themselves. I feel extremely fortunate that I grew up in two households (my mother’s and my father’s) where the words “Black” and “feminist” were never viewed as contradictory. This understanding is a very important gift that I inherited from both my mother and my father at a young age. It shaped how I view the world today.

For many years, my mother and I have had our “mother/daughter” challenges. We consistently work, struggle, and love through dialogue and in the profundity of silence to fully understand who we each are and respect the places from which we each stand on our journeys called life.

I’m very clear that I am literally standing upon ground that she broke in the 1960s when she was on the frontlines fighting for racial justice in Amer-i-KKK-a. In 1964, a couple of months shy of her twentieth birthday, my mother became the Director of a Council Of Federated Organizations[1] project in Laurel, Mississippi. To the best of my mother’s knowledge, she was one of only two women project directors during this Mississippi Freedom Summer of 1964. She remained Project Director for eighteen months. In response to a violent intra-racial sexual assault attempt, while fighting against some of the most vicious forms of racism with her Black male comrades, she instituted one of the first (if not the only) sexual harassment policies in 1964, on the Laurel Project.

In my feature length film NO! The Rape Documentary, which unveils the reality of rape, other forms of sexual assault, and healing in African-American communities, she says:

“…I made it a point on the Laurel Project to say ‘NO sexual abuse of any kind would be tolerated. And any infringement of that would be grounds for being expelled from the project.’ To my knowledge it was the first project and possibly the only one, certainly during the Mississippi Summer of 1964 that any project had such a rule. Everyone had to go through an orientation that included a segment on sexual abuse and what it was and that when a woman said she didn’t want to go out or certainly didn’t want to have sex that no one better ever try to force her to do that. As a result of that I became known as an Amazon…”

My mom is the womanifestation of the continuum of the powerful women who preceded and raised her. I celebrate her and all their Black feminist/womanist activism which has most definitely informed and inspired my Black feminist lesbian activism.

[1] Council of Federated Organizations was made up of four organizations working to achieve racial equality in the United States. The organizations were SNCC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee), SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference), CORE (Congress on Racial Equality), and NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People).

[...]Historically, law enforcement has been used to control African-American communities through brutality and racial profiling. It may be difficult for a Black woman to seek help if she feels it could be at the expense of African-American men or her community. The history of racial injustice (particularly the stereotype of the Black male as a sexual predator) and the need to protect her community from further attack might persuade a survivor to remain silent.

We need more research to fully understand the scope of violence against Black women and the barriers they face to receiving support services. This requires both the political will and funding to make their lives a priority. Unfortunately, due to a long history of systemic racism and classism in the United States, the violation of Black women’s bodies is often rendered invisible.

]]>http://notherapedocumentary.org/black-women-sexual-assault-and-the-art-of-resistance/feed0http://notherapedocumentary.org/black-women-sexual-assault-and-the-art-of-resistanceAishah Shahidah Simmons asks “Who Will Revere Us? (Black LGTBQ People, Straight Women, and Girls)”http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NoTheRapeDocumentary/~3/oZSwaDFTq_c/who-will-revere-us-black-lgtbq-people-straight-women-and-girls
http://notherapedocumentary.org/who-will-revere-us-black-lgtbq-people-straight-women-and-girls#commentsFri, 27 Apr 2012 11:16:21 +0000adminhttp://notherapedocumentary.org/who-will-revere-us-black-lgtbq-people-straight-women-and-girlsNone of Us are Free until All of Us are Free

Introduction

The title of this four part article is a metaphorical nod to the legendary jazz singer, songwriter, actor, and activist Abbey Lincoln (also known as Aminata Moseka) whose essay, “Who Will Revere The Black Woman?” is featured in the ground-breaking anthology The Black Woman. Edited by Black feminist author, screenwriter, and visionary activist Toni Cade Bambara, this all-Black woman anthology focused on the issues most pertinent to Black women and our communities. Originally published in 1970 and reissued in 2005 with a forward by Dr. Eleanor W. Traylor, The Black Woman was the literary wo/manifestation of the impact of the intersection of the Civil Rights/Black Power movements and the second wave of the Women’s Rights movement on Black women’s lives. In short, Ms. Lincoln’s ageless essay is a demand for justice and protection for Black women. In her concluding paragraph she writes,

[…]Who will revere the Black woman? Who will keep our neighborhoods safe for Black innocent womanhood? Black womanhood is outraged and humiliated. Black womanhood cries for dignity and restitution and salvation. Black womanhood wants and needs protections, and keeping and holding. Who will assuage her indignation? Who will keep her precious and pure? Who will glorify and proclaim her beautiful image? To whom will she cry rape?

I cannot afford the luxury of fighting one form of oppression only. I cannot believe that freedom from intolerance is the right of only one particular group. And I cannot afford to choose between the front upon which I must battle these forces of discrimination, wherever they appear to destroy me. And when they appear to destroy me, it will not be long before they appear to destroy you.[1]

I am struggling to find the right time to discuss inter and intra-racial gender-based violence in the midst of the justified outrage about the rampant and virulent racialized violence perpetrated against straight Black boys and men. Even with this being Sexual Assault Awareness Month, now doesn’t feel like the best time to write about the gender-based and state-sanctioned violence perpetuated against Black straight women, girls, and LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer) people both inside of and outside of our racial/cultural communities. I fear that sharing what’s on my heart and mind, might be construed as my taking away from the “real” issue at hand in most Black communities, which seems to be solely white supremacist and/or state-sanctioned racist violence against straight Black men and boys.

Audre Lorde’s writings remind me, however, that discussions on oppression within Black communities should never be taken up within an either/or frame. The diverse herstories/histories and contemporary realities of Black straight women, girls, and LGBTQ people have consistently revealed that the issues that directly impact us often take a back seat, if they even make it into the metaphorical car on the freedom and liberation highway.

There is a collective understanding among many in multi-racial, radical progressive movements, that the white supremacist, patriarchal, heterosexist, imperial, and capitalist power structure is the root of all oppressions in the United States. While I believe that to be true, even in the company of other oppressed people, Black straight women and LGBTQ people are still under attack. Too often we are caught at the intersections of race, gender, and if we identify as LGBTQ, sexuality. In spite of our shared his/herstories of oppression, struggle, and perseverance against the odds, not enough Black people view sexism, patriarchy, misogyny, heterosexism and transphobia with the same kind of activist passion that we view racism, white supremacy, and state-sanctioned violence perpetuated against straight Black men and boys.

The reality is this: when Black straight men and boys are beaten, brutalized, and/or murdered as a result of state-sanctioned and/or white supremacist violence, it becomes (as well it should be) a national issue in the Black community and in a few, definitely not all, instances, the outrage moves beyond the Black community. Yet, when Black straight women, girls, and LGBTQ people are raped, sexually assaulted, beaten, brutalized, and/or murdered as a result of misogynist, patriarchal, state-sanctioned, and/or white supremacist violence, it is too often the victim’s individual issue.

Illustrator: Shepard Fairley

There are so many egregious, known and unknown, cases of racial and gender-based violence perpetuated against all Black people, regardless of their gender, gender identity, and sexuality, that it is literally impossible to write about all of them. I want to highlight a selected few of the far too many, however, to ask Black/African-American/African descended people to consider our responses when any of us have been railroaded into the prison industrial complex, sexually or otherwise assaulted, or murdered. I want us, Black/African-American/African descended people, to consider our responses to issues that affect many as opposed to those issues affecting some of us based on our gender, gender identity, and/or sexuality.

***

Part 1, which was published on April 23, 2012, can be read in its entirety here. On April 24, 2012, Ebony.com aggregated part one. You can read it here.

Part 2, which was published on April 24, 2012, can be read in its entiretyhere. Part 3, which was published on April 25, 2012, can be read in its entirety here. Part 4, which was published on April 26, 2012, can be read in its entirety here.

DESCRIPTION

Join filmmaker and artist Tiona McClodden as she discusses her work as a filmmaker, director, artist and activist in the LGBT community. Tiona will show excerpts of some of her most well known works and of new works not yet seen.

Tonight’s films will be followed by a conversation with the filmmaker Tiona McClodden and director, producer Aishah Shahidah Simmons.

More About Tiona McCloddenTiona McClodden aka tiona.m. is a Black lesbian filmmaker/artist. Her last film, black./womyn.: conversationswith lesbians of African descent, provides a platform for Black lesbians to speak for themselves and to confront the hyper-sexualized image of the Black lesbian. black./womyn. was awarded the Audience Award for Best Documentary by the Philadelphia International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival (now QFest) in 2008. Tiona continues to develop and create films on progressive topics with the hope of directing a narrative feature-length project in the near future. She is currently in production with her next feature length documentary The Untitled Black Lesbian Elder Project,a short narrative film Bumming Cigarettes, and an experimental short series called Be Alarmed: The Black Americana Epic, which is an magical realism themed meditation on the Black American experience. www.tionam.com

More About Aishah Shahidah SimmonsAishah Shahidah Simmons is an AfroLez®femcentric cultural worker based in Philadelphia, PA. An incest and rape survivor, she is the producer, writer, and director of the internationally acclaimed, award-winning feature documentary NO! The Rape Documentary, which unveils the reality of rape, other forms of sexual violence and healing in African-American communities. NO! also explores how rape is used as a weapon of homophobia. She is presently in post-production on Liberation from Within about the first 10-day Vipassana Meditation course, as taught by S.N. Goenka, held in India in December 2009, for people of African heritage worldwide. Her writings on cinematic activism, gender-based violence, and queer identity from an AfroLez®femcentric perspective, and the impact of the intersections of race, gender, and sexual orientation on the lives of Black women are featured in several anthologies and journals. Aishah facilitates workshops, teaches classes, and lectures extensively throughout North America and internationally. http://NOtheRapeDocumentary.orghttp://AfroLezProductions.com

More About The Films

Bumming Cigarettes Short Narrative Film Spring 2012Bumming Cigarettes is a short film about a brief and intimate meeting between a young Black lesbian woman who is in the process of taking an HIV test and a middle aged Black Gay HIV Positive man. Coming off of the devastation of a bad breakup with a cheating girlfriend, VEE finds herself alone in her apt watching time go by, until she musters up the courage to go and take an HIV test to put her worst fears to rest. What she experiences during her trip to a local clinic is much more than she expects while sharing a cigarette with a stranger, Jimmy as she awaits her test results. This film explores tough issues that persons living with HIV/AIDS may encounter such as the loss of intimacy with loved ones while also encouraging awareness around HIV/AIDs testing and the way we treat persons living with the disease. www.bummingcigarettes.com

The Untitled Black Lesbian Project {working title} Documentary (In Progress)
The Untitled Black Lesbian Elder Project (UBLEP) is a feature-length documentary film highlighting interviews with black lesbian elders in their 60s, 70s and 80s from across the United States. The documentary is a collaboration between filmmaker Tiona McClodden and publisher Lisa C. Moore. UBLEP situates the elders’ stories within a range of historical movements, spanning the decades between the 1930s and the 1980s. Featuring 8-10 profiles of elders, UBLEP will reveal rare images of black lesbian life and history through the use of accompanying archival footage and personal ephemera. UBLEP will also bring to light a number of black lesbian underground movements, solidifying a black lesbian presence within overall American black history.http://ubleproject.tumblr.com/

Be Alarmed: The Great Black Americana Epic Experimental, 2009-2012This experimental series is comprised of ‘scenes’ cut into trailers that are a visual meditation on themes of race, class, gender, sexuality, violence, religion, mental illness, materialism, and age as it relates to the contemporary African-American community. This series is the beginning of an exploration in film genre and marketing techniques by the artist. The trailer structure of the series is something Tiona is using in order to challenge the idea of what is shown within a film trailer format in opposition to what is actually left out to encourage the viewer to desire and participate in the creation of the final film. I am taking the idea of showing only the trailer of the larger work in order to encourage the viewer to ‘fill in the blanks’ in regards to the larger narrative of the idea behind the work. The presentation of the project will be a series of screenings and exhibitions of the film trailers and detailed film press kits all created by the artist. http://bealarmed.tumblr.com

black./womyn.:conversations with lesbians of African descent, 2008
black./womyn.:conversations… is a feature-length documentary focusing on the lives and views of lesbians of African descent from various backgrounds. The documentary is structured by interviews—“conversations”—the director had with each of the women. It features candid interviews with black lesbian women discussing coming out, sexuality and religion, love and relationships, marriage, patriarchy, visibility in media, discrimination and homophobia, activism, gender identity, Black lesbian youth and elders, balancing gender/race/sexuality, and, finally, what it means to call oneself a Black lesbian today.black./womyn.:conversations… is a piece that provokes honest, progressive dialogue and critical thinking among people in general—and Black lesbians in particular—about how Black lesbians are viewed and affected by society. black./womyn.:conversations… features interviews with close to 50 out, Black lesbians including Poet/Author Cheryl Clarke, Filmmaker/Activist Aishah Shahidah Simmons, Poet/Author Staceyann Chin, Filmmaker Michelle Parkerson, Artist Hanifah Walidah, Hip-Hop Duo KIN, and Author Fiona Zedde. www.blackwomynfilm.com

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]]>http://notherapedocumentary.org/an-evening-w-filmmakerartist-tiona-m-in-conversation-with-filmmakeractivist-aishah-shahidah-simmons/feed0http://notherapedocumentary.org/an-evening-w-filmmakerartist-tiona-m-in-conversation-with-filmmakeractivist-aishah-shahidah-simmonsFather and Daughter discuss “coming out process,” and eradicating violence against women on Left of Blackhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NoTheRapeDocumentary/~3/9lPt-SWRxEk/father-and-daughter-discuss-coming-out-process-and-eradicating-violence-against-women-on-left-of-black
http://notherapedocumentary.org/father-and-daughter-discuss-coming-out-process-and-eradicating-violence-against-women-on-left-of-black#commentsTue, 03 Apr 2012 22:48:51 +0000adminhttp://notherapedocumentary.org/father-and-daughter-discuss-coming-out-process-and-eradicating-violence-against-women-on-left-of-blackMichael Simmons and Aishah Shahidah Simmons discuss her “coming out process,” and eradicating violence against women on Mark Anthony Neal’s “Left of Black” series.

Award-winning filmmaker and international lecturer Aishah Shahidah Simmons shared the stage with International Human Rights Activist Michael Simmons who is her father/friend/confidante/comrade on the first segment of Season 2, Episode 26 of Left of Black. This phenomenal series is hosted by Duke University Professor and prolific writer Mark Anthony Neal.

During their segment, Michael and Aishah talked about what it meant for a father to both both nurture and support his daughter’s coming out as a Black feminist lesbian (over 20-years ago). Equally as important they discussed their individual and collective work to address violence against women both nationally and internationally. Their conversation also included Aishah sharing about the some of the seeds planted over 20-years ago, which WOmanifested into her award-winning, internationally acclaimed film NO! The Rape Documentary.

Michael Simmons, Aishah Shahidah Simmons, and Mark Anthony Neal on the set of Left of Black. Photograph by Linda Carranza

Michael Simmons is the co-director, with Linda Carranza, of the Raday Salon, an independent human rights oriented program in Budapest, Hungary. The Salon is rooted in both Simmons’ and Carranza’s own individual his/herstories as international human rights activists. For more information about the Salon please visithttp://raday.blogs.com

Over and over again as racially-conscious, Black feminist lesbian and gay people, we find ourselves being told to be silent when misogyny and homophobia rears its head in order to be accepted as Black by the larger community. The most recent debacle from Roland Martin’s homophobic tweets during the Super Bowl is one of too many examples:

If a dude at your Super Bowl party is hyped about David Beckham’s H&M underwear ad, smack the ish out of him! #superbowl

Who the hell was that New England Patriot they just showed in a head to toe pink suit? Oh, he needs a visit from team #whipdatass

Martin’s comments were reprehensible in any environment, but most especially during the super-macho (and super-hetero) Super Bowl. Using Suzanne Pharr’s analysis that “Homophobia [is] a weapon of sexism,” it’s also apparent that Martin’s issue with Beckham’s bikini briefs, the unmanly sport of soccer, or the fan’s “pink suit,” relies heavily on sexism to reinforce heterosexist definitions of manhood.

We can’t afford to take homophobia lightly.

For so many LGBTQ people, many of whom are Black, this is life and death. When a noted journalist like Martin uses humor to condone violence against men who appear to be gay, it is insensitive, careless, and extremely irresponsible.

Some have even argued that Martin’s fate is a result of the response of misguided people who have given too much power to words. According to Raynard Jackson, writing in response to this debacle for The Washington Post, “words have no intrinsic meaning other than meanings that are internalized by each individual.”

Words are merely words, right? No! They actually shape the climate in which someone’s “ass” may literally be beat and murdered altogether. The next day after Martin’s tweets, a video surfaced of Brandon White, a black gay man who was jumped by multiple men in Atlanta for wearing skinny jeans. Much like Martin’s tweets, this video shows that someone’s choice of clothing, which others may view as contrary to their gender and abnormal, is a reason to be subject to assault. Our thoughts and the words that we use are reflected through actions. As a result, we need not use words that produce harm, but words that seek to ameliorate violence.

So, where are the “words” of condemnation emanating from the Black progressive establishment regarding Martin’s tweets or the numerous physical attacks on Black LGBT people that happen daily?

The deafening silence from Non-LGBTQ Black Civil Rights organizations and public intellectuals taking a stand against homophobia is unacceptable. It’s as if racism is the main/real issue worthy of being addressed, with sexism/misogyny in a very distant second place, and homophobia a practically non-existent third place on our Black civil rights platform. Why do these organizations and “leaders” continue to act as if they are not accountable to Black people who are LGBTQ? Aren’t we Black, too?

Similarly, why does GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) act is if they are not accountable to LGBTQ people who are Black? As Robert Jones, Jr., author of the Son of Baldwin blog stated, ?“I think Roland Martin deserved censure and suspension, just like Don Imus deserved being terminated. But where is GLAAD when [white gay writers like] Andrew Sullivan and Dan Savage make their racist statements? I sense a double standard and it REEKS of racism.”

GLAAD’s swift action to demand that CNN fire Martin gives us pause. Interestingly enough, GLAAD didn’t also demand TVOne, a Black-owned network, where Martin hosts a weekly show, to fire him. Clearly, based on GLAAD’s actions, they’re not very concerned about the impact of Martin’s homophobia on Black networks (if they even know the networks exist). In response to Martin’s comments, GLAAD’s website reiterates, “Our goal is to ensure better coverage that works toward ending anti-LGBT violence.”

If that is GLAAD’s goal, then why aren’t they also holding other outlets where Roland Martin has a platform accountable? Furthermore, Martin recently met with GLAAD; but none of the Black queer people who first called Martin out over Twitter was invited by GLAAD to join in such a meeting. Why is Martin only accountable to GLAAD?

Cleo Manago, CEO and founder of the Black Men’s Xchange (BMX), had this to say about GLAAD’s demand that Martin be fired from CNN: “…we are still in the process of recovering from many challenges that have resulted from being Black in America. Still, lily-White organizations like GLAAD are not in the position to complain about alleged injustice from Blacks. They clearly are not culturally competent enough to accurately interpret the voices of Black people.”

While Manago might be correct to interrogate GLAAD’s “cultural competency,” he too misses a valuable point.

The fact is: it was Black queer men and women, and not some “lily-white organization,” who were the first to call attention to Martin’s heterosexist words. GLAAD’s response, and CNN’s subsequent move to suspend Martin, followed the swift rebuke of Twitter personalities @kenyonfarrow, @Anti_Intellect, @TheFireNextTime.

The fact is: it was Black brothers and sisters who called out a Black brother. Period.

Given the facts, let’s assume that the Black men and women who rightly pointed out Martin’s violent words were indeed “culturally competent enough” to interpret Roland’s words as sexist and homophobic (because they were), where will Manago and others now point their fingers?

Photo source: GayLiberation.Net via Google Images

The claim that somehow we should ignore heterosexist remarks, particularly those spewed by other Black folk, because of the force of racism, is dangerously limited. There are no battles (i.e. calling out and resisting racism OR calling out and resisting homophobia) to choose in this regard. There is but one battle and that is our sustained resistance to oppression when and wherever it rears its head.

The idea that we should forego calling Martin out for his heterosexism because he is Black is just as myopic as thinking that we should not call out GLAAD for the lack of response to racism within and without the queer community. Both are wrong and require our resistance.

We, as individuals and organizations in the Black community, should embrace a vision of our community that doesn’t try to sacrifice any of us for the so-called progress of the majority, whether about gender/sexuality, economic status, or other complexities of Black life. Then we might begin to make some headway with addressing the ways that multiple forms of oppression impact so many of us.

Kenyon Farrow is a writer and activist living in NYC. He blogs at kenyonfarrow.com.

]]>http://notherapedocumentary.org/standing-at-the-intersections-of-roland-martins-homophobia-and-glaads-racism/feed0http://notherapedocumentary.org/standing-at-the-intersections-of-roland-martins-homophobia-and-glaads-racismThe Spoils and Generational Impact of Warhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NoTheRapeDocumentary/~3/ku9qbWeHLZ0/the-spoils-and-generational-impact-of-war
http://notherapedocumentary.org/the-spoils-and-generational-impact-of-war#commentsSat, 11 Feb 2012 14:22:10 +0000adminhttp://notherapedocumentary.org/the-spoils-and-generational-impact-of-warReflecting Upon the Generational Impact of the U.S.’s UNJUST War Against Vietnam

In March 1980*, Uncle Reginald died from a cancer, which ravaged his body in six months. Fast forward to the late 80s, when his daughter, my first cousin Crystal D. Simmons, was first diagnosed with breast cancer. Since that time she gave birth to and was in the process of raising three brilliant and beautiful children while simultaneously battling multiple forms of cancer that appeared to mutate (not metastasize) in various parts of her body. Crystal had at least 40** surgeries for 23-years and multiple bouts with chemotherapy and radiation. In the midst of her own battles, her eldest daughter Christina D. Simmons died from a cancerous brain tumor in June 2007. Crystal died on December 25, 2011, and is survived by her two younger children Reggie and Courtney who are 14 and 16. Very recently, Courtney was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a pediatric bone cancer. While coping with the loss of her mother less than one month ago, Courtney now must AND WILL battle cancer. Decisions made in the 1960s are having a generational impact in 2012.

Unfortunately my family is not unique.

Vietnam estimates 400,000 people were killed or maimed, and 500,000 children born with birth defects. And, tragically this country hasn’t learned any lessons from their egregious, wretched, and inhumane errors in Vietnam. I reflect upon Grenada, Panama, Iraq, and Afghanistan to name a few of the countries who, since Vietnam, have been directly invaded and occupied by the US…

Too bad (what has become) the US didn’t take heed to The Great Law of the Iroquois Confederacy, which says, “In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations.” Instead they took deliberate actions, which resulted in the genocide of the Iroquois and millions of other Indigenous nations of this land.

No One Is Free While Others Are Oppressed!!!

*In the original posting of this blog, I wrote that my Uncle Reginald died in 1979. Michael Simmons, my father, informed me that his brother’s funeral was in March 1980.

**When my cousin Courtney read this blog, she informed me that her mother, Crystal, had 40 surgeries and not the 15 that I originally listed.

A Film Screening and Panel Discussion
Co-Sponsored by the Womanist Approaches to Religion and Society Group, and the Black Theology Group at theAmerican Academy of Religion’s 2011 Annual Meeting
November 19, 2011
Marriott Marquis (Session A19-407)
San Francisco, CA
8:00pm

Description
An intergenerational panel following the screening of NO! The Rape Documentary, the internationally acclaimed, award-winning feature length documentary, which unveils the reality of rape, other forms of sexual violence, and healing in African-American communities. NO! also explores how rape is used as a weapon of homophobia. The featured panelists will discuss how religion, race, and politics can both negatively and positively influence attitudes and solutions to end rape and other forms of sexual violence. They will engage in a conversation that will explore some of the issues highlighted in the documentary, which include; Black feminist/womanist Christian and Islamic perspectives that address the wrongfulness of the rape of women; Black men as pro-feminist/womanist allies in rape prevention; Rape as a community issue that reinforces interlocking systems of oppression, such as racism, sexism, classism, and heterosexism; and Activism and spirituality as healing modalities. Gender-based violence is an international atrocity that knows no boundary. This panel will address these global acts of violence through the first-person testimonies, scholarship, activism, and cultural work of African-Americans. As Alice Walker, the Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Color Purple says, “If the Black community in the Americas and in the world would save itself it must complete the work ‘NO!’ begins.”

Moderator:Rev. Carla Jean-McNeil Jackson, Esq. is an administrative law attorney, who also provides pro bono legal services in housing law. She is also an ordained minister and an accomplished vocalist, including a tour of Italy in the musical “Sister Act 2.” Her sermon, “Managing Life’s Challenges,” is published in Those Preaching Women: A Multicultural Collection, edited by the late Ella P. Mitchell and Valerie Bridgeman, with a foreword by Katie G. Cannon.

Panelists:Aishah Shahidah Simmons, is the producer, writer, and director of NO! The Rape Documentary. Since its official release in 2006, this award-winning, internationally acclaimed documentary been used as an educational organizing tool across North America, and in numerous countries throughout the world. Ms. Simmons is a Black feminist lesbian incest and rape survivor whose writings on cinematic activism, gender-based violence, queer identity from an AfroLez®femcentric perspective, and the impact of the intersections of race, gender, and sexual orientation on the lives of Black women are featured in several anthologies and journals. She facilitates workshops, teaches classes, and lectures extensively throughout North America and internationally.

Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons, Ph.D., is Senior Lecturer in African American and Religious Studies at the University of Florida. A featured interviewee in NO!, her research, teaching, and anthologized writings focus on Women and Islam; and the role of religion in the African American Struggle for Justice. She is presently under contract with The New Press, for a volume in their new religion series titled, ISLAM does not equal FUNDAMENTALISM. Additionally, for over 45 years, she has worked globally in the areas of civil rights, women’s rights, human rights, and peace work. This work includes her 23-year tenure on the staff of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker peace, justice, human rights, and international development organization.

For more than four decades, Alice Walker has used the written word to make visible that which has been made invisible as a result of exploitation and marginalization. Equally as important, she is a humanitarian and social-change agent who has literally put her body on the line for peace and justice. Alice Walker walks her talk. Her living example has inspired and challenged countless individuals around the world to live fully engaged, compassionate lives.

People had a problem with my disinterest in submission. And they had a problem with my intellect, and they had a problem with my choice of lovers … and they had a problem with my choice of everything … so, choose one, choose all, they just had a problem. …

On a very personal level, were it not for her groundbreaking art and activism, along with that of other second-wave Black women writers and cultural workers, my documentary film NO! The Rape Documentary—which unveils the reality of rape, other forms of sexual violence and healing in African American communities—would probably not exist. I, along with so many others, literally and metaphorically stand upon Alice Walker’s shoulders.

And if there were ever a time for the world to have a visual record of Alice Walker’s inspiring journey, now is it.

Internationally acclaimed, award-winning filmmaker Pratibha Parmar has joyously and boldly taken on the auspicious responsibility of documenting the life of her longtime friend in the feature-length Alice Walker: Beauty In Truth. The two women first met in 1991, when Parmar’s dear friend, the late poet and activist June Jordan, along with activist and scholar Angela Davis, introduced the two women. At the time Parmar was in production on A Place of Rage, a documentary for British television on African American women and their role in the U.S. civil rights movement. Two years later, Parmar and Walker were working together, on the poignant and powerful documentary Warrior Marks about female genital mutilation (FGM). The idea came from Walker, who at the time was completing her novel Possessing the Secret of Joy, which explored the life of a genitally mutilated African woman. Back then, voices speaking out against such atrocities were barely acknowledged in the global arena, but Warrior Marks played an important part in encouraging international AID organizations to not treat FGM as culture, but as torture. In addition to the film, Walker and Parmar co-authored the book Warrior Marks: Female Genital Mutilation and the Sexual Blinding of Women.

I don’t believe there is a filmmaker more suited or committed to make an Alice Walker documentary than Pratibha Parmar.

Parmar and Haq are now in critical need of funding to get this important documentary film across the finish line. They hope to release the film in 2012 to mark the 30th anniversary of the release of The Color Purple. They already have a broadcast deal with PBS’ American Masters, but part of the filmmakers’ agreement with PBS is that, for cinematic integrity’s sake, none of the featured interviewees, including Alice Walker, can contribute any funding towards the project.

That’s where the rest of us can step in. With their credit cards maxed, Parmar and Haq have started a crowd-funding campaign on IndieGoGo to raise a minimum of $50,000. Their ultimate goal is triple that, since they need $150,000 to complete the film.

I was humbled and honored to be asked by Pratibha Parmar to join the fundraising team. Alice Walker’s ongoing contributions to making this world a more humane place is profound. And while I always credit my teacher and mentor, the late Black feminist writer and cultural worker Toni Cade Bambara, with helping me find myself as a Black feminist lesbian cultural worker, Parmar’s films–especially A Place of Rage–played a pivotal role in shifting my gaze and challenging me to use the moving image to make compassionately humane revolution irresistible.

To date more than 20 percent of the $50,000 minimum has been raised. Now the filmmakers have less than two months to raise the rest, so time is of the essence. Donations begin at $10 and go up to $10,000. Pledges are accepted internationally.

With most independent films, especially those made by and about radical women who do not conform to patriarchal and racialized definitions of womanhood (whatever that means!), it takes a global village to transform these womanist/feminist visions into celluloid/digital realities. If there is any doubt about the importance of Alice Walker: Beauty In Truth, I invite and encourage you to view the breathtaking trailer for the film to get a taste of what’s to come with the of the completed film.

As Angela Davis’ so eloquently says in the film,

All of Alice’s writings urge us to think differently and to think critically often about those things we most take for granted. I think that’s what can change the world.

Here’s where you can offer critically needed financial support to Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth.

for a lively panel discussion following the screening of this award-wining, riveting film that explores sexism and other pressing issues in hip-hop culture.

For More Information: please contact Sexual Violence Response by sending an email to lr2520@columbia.edu or by calling 212.854.3500

]]>http://notherapedocumentary.org/hip-hop-beyond-beats-and-rhymes-screening-and-panel-discussion/feed0http://notherapedocumentary.org/hip-hop-beyond-beats-and-rhymes-screening-and-panel-discussionDSK AND JUSTICE: THE POLITICS OF GETTING OFF IN A RAPE CULTUREhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NoTheRapeDocumentary/~3/VRBr1siBVks/dsk-and-justice-the-politics-of-getting-off-in-a-rape-culture
http://notherapedocumentary.org/dsk-and-justice-the-politics-of-getting-off-in-a-rape-culture#commentsMon, 10 Oct 2011 20:47:18 +0000adminhttp://notherapedocumentary.org/dsk-and-justice-the-politics-of-getting-off-in-a-rape-cultureDSK (Dominique Strauss Kahn) AND JUSTICE: THE POLITICS OF GETTING OFF IN A RAPE CULTURE

Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw is a professor of law at UCLA and Columbia. She has written in the areas of civil rights, black feminist legal theory, and race, racism and the law. Her work has appeared in the Harvard Law Review, the National Black Law Journal, the Stanford Law Review, and the Southern California Law Review. A founding coordinator of the Critical Race Theory workshop; coeditor of Critical Race Theory: Key Documents That Shaped the Movement. Professor Crenshaw lectured nationally and internationally on race matters, addressing audiences throughout Europe, Africa, and South America. Her work on race and gender was influential in the drafting of the equality clause in the South African Constitution. In 2001, she authored the background paper on Race and Gender Discrimination for the United Nations’ World Conference on Racism and helped facilitate the inclusion of gender in the WCAR Conference Declaration. In the domestic arena, she has served as a member of the National Science Foundation’s committee to research violence against women and has assisted the legal team representing Anita Hill.

Elizabeth (Beth) Ribet is the Research Director at the Center on Intersectionality and Social Policy in the School of Law at Columbia. She is simultaneously appointed as an adjunct professor and is team-teaching “Intersectionalities” with Kimberle Crenshaw, in the 2011-2012 academic year. She holds a PhD in Social Relations from the University of California-Irvine, and a JD from UCLA with a concentration in Critical Race Studies. Her doctoral dissertation was grounded in interviews with Jewish daughters of Holocaust survivors in the U.S. Her additional areas of teaching interest in Law include disability law, international law, prison law and policy, torts, labor law, and various areas of critical theory. Professor Ribet writes primarily about the production of new or “emergent” disabilities and illnesses, produced by intersecting dynamics of racial, gender, economic, sexual, ethno-religious, age, and citizenship based stratification and subordination.

Aishah Shahidah Simmons is the producer, writer, and director of the internationally acclaimed, award-winning film NO! The Rape Documentary, which unveils the reality of rape, other forms of sexual violence, and healing in African-American communities. Subtitled in Spanish, French, and Portuguese, NO! also examines how rape is used as a weapon of homophobia. Since its official release in 2006, NO! has been used and is currently being used as an educational organizing tool throughout North America, and in numerous countries in Europe, Africa, Asia, the Pacific Islands, South America, and the Caribbean. Ms. Simmons essays, some of which have been translated into French, Spanish, and Italian, are featured in several anthologies and journals. She facilitates workshops and lectures extensively on the issues of gender-based violence, and the impact of the intersections race, gender, and sexual orientation on the lives of Black women at colleges/universities, high schools, rape crisis centers, battered women’s shelters, prisons, public libraries, non-governmental organizations, religious institutions, government agencies, and film festivals in North America and internationally.

]]>http://notherapedocumentary.org/dsk-and-justice-the-politics-of-getting-off-in-a-rape-culture/feed0http://notherapedocumentary.org/dsk-and-justice-the-politics-of-getting-off-in-a-rape-cultureTroy Davis, SlutWalks, Occupy Wall Street, Stephanie Gilmore Challenges Racism at the Intersectionshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NoTheRapeDocumentary/~3/7hv_dgb-DlA/am-i-troy-davis-a-slut-or-what%e2%80%99s-troubling-me-about-the-absence-of-reflexivity-in-movements-that-proclaim-solidarity
http://notherapedocumentary.org/am-i-troy-davis-a-slut-or-what%e2%80%99s-troubling-me-about-the-absence-of-reflexivity-in-movements-that-proclaim-solidarity#commentsSun, 09 Oct 2011 19:24:35 +0000adminhttp://notherapedocumentary.org/?p=426Sister/Comrade Stephanie Gilmore, who spoke at SlutWalk Philadelphia, is, to the best of my knowledge, one of the ONLY anti-racist White Feminists who has PUBLICLY SUPPORTED the IDEA/PREMISE of SlutWalk while PUBLICLY CHALLENGING its CURRENT RACIST REALITY.

With her FULL PERMISSION, I have re-posted the text of her essay so that people who are not on facebook will be able to read it in its entirety.

Am I Troy Davis? A Slut?; or, What’s Troubling Me about the Absence of Reflexivity in Movements that Proclaim Solidarity

by Stephanie Gilmore

1.

On September 21, 2011, I joined hundreds of my friends and millions of people around the world to watch, through tears and in abject horror, as Troy Anthony Davis was executed by the State of Georgia. In the twenty years between Davis’ trial for the murder of police officer Mark McPhail and his execution, Davis maintained his innocence while witnesses recanted the testimony that sent Davis to death row. Despite conflicting testimonies and inadequate evidence, the state put aside lingering and longstanding doubt and instead, put Troy Anthony Davis to death.

On Facebook, Twitter, and other media outlets, I saw virtual and real friends declare that “I am Troy Davis.” They changed their profile pictures to a picture or image of Davis, or a black box, all in an attempt to articulate a sense of solidarity, a stand against the injustice of the prison industrial complex and a state thoroughly entrenched in the murder of a man who may not have committed the crime of murder. I agree wholeheartedly that the state was wrong in executing Mr. Davis and I grieve for his death as well as that of Officer McPhail. But in the weeks since Davis’s execution, I have been wondering if people really understand how and why Davis came to be murdered at the hands of the state. People insist that “I am Troy Davis,” but what does that mean?

In many ways, I am not Troy Davis. I am a middle-class, 40-something-year-old white woman. According to a 2008 Pew Center on the States report, one in 36 Hispanic adults is in prison in the United States. One in 15 Black adults is too, a statistic that includes one in 100 Black women and one in nine Black men, age 20-34. Although one of my parents spent time in prison, and through incarceration joined the swelling ranks of 2.3 million imprisoned people and many more in the system of probation, halfway houses, and parole, I and my white peers do not face systemic racial injustice in the structures of imprisonment. And it does not begin or end with the prison system. Black children are suspended and expelled from school at 3 times the rate of white children. Racial discrimination in funding for education also affects children’s success in school, as cash-poor school districts are also overwhelmingly Black and Latino neighborhoods. Schools have been and remain a pipeline to prison for many Black and Latino children, and generations of families, prison is a reality. One in 15 Black children currently has a parent in jail. People say that the system is broken, but I (along with others in the prison abolition movement) admit that the system is working exactly as it was set up to do. Can I really say, “I am Troy Davis” without giving serious consideration to the realities of racism in the prison industrial complex? Does that just become little more than the adoption of a slogan and a picture, without a real awareness of the racist realities of the prison industrial complex?

2.

On August 6, 2011, I joined Slut Walk Philadelphia. It was a beautiful day and hundreds of people moved through Center City to end up at City Hall, where even more gathered to speak out against sexual violence. I had been following Slut Walks with great delight because I see the people power in the sheer numbers of women and men who are fighting back against sexual violence. So when I was asked to participate, and to stand with queer people of Color in a more racially inclusive Slut Walk than I had seen to date, I said “yes” because the fight to end sexual violence is my fight. And fighting against a culture that perpetuates and promotes rape; cheers on rapists; and diminishes, humiliates, and silences victims through law, education, and entertainment will demands knowledge that the system, again, is not broken. It is doing the very work it was constructed to do – sexual violence is a tool of ensuring white status quo. And if we are to end sexual violence, we must acknowledge how it operates.

I have struggled to accept a movement that does not acknowledge the very problematic word “slut” and how historically many women have not been able to shake the label of “slut.” I participated in the struggle – the movement as well as my own internal struggle – because I wanted to engage in, create, and sustain dialogue. Indeed, many criticize the apparent move to claim “slut” – how can you pick up something you’ve never been able to put down? Black women have been most vocal about the longer legacy of sexual violence done onto their bodies – often against the backdrop of slavery and colonialism — simply for being Black. But I continued to push into these bigger conversations and analyses. I listened and engaged when Crunk Feminist Collective challenged Slut Walks, when BlackWomen’s Blueprint issued their “Open Letter from Black Women to Slut Walk Organizers,” and when individual women of Color (and only women of Color) spoke publicly about racist actions within individual marches as well as racism within the larger movement. White women I know made private comments about different expressions of racism, but never spoke up to challenge individual actions or larger frameworks of analysis, leaving me to wonder “why?”

And then I saw the sign from Slut Walk NYC bearing the words “Women are the N*gger of the World.” I don’t care that the quotation is from John Lennon and Yoko Ono. I don’t care that the woman was asked to take down the sign – although I certainly do care that a woman of Color had to ask her to do so while white women moved around her, seemingly oblivious. I am angry when I continue to see so many white women defending it expressly or remaining complicit in silence, suggesting that “we” (what “we”?) need to focus on sexual violence first, as if it is unrelated to racism. And I wonder, can I really claim to be a part of the nascent Slut Walk movement without giving serious consideration to the realities of racism within very publicly identified facets of it? Can I be a part of it when so many women – my very allies and sisters in antiracist struggle – are set apart from it, or worse, set in perpetual opposition to it?

3.

My question is, how can we be in solidarity when we are not willing to be reflexive and to check ourselves, check each other, and be checked? Bernice Johnson Reagon acknowledged that coalition building is hard work, made even harder by people who come to coalition seeking to find a home. My sense, or perhaps one sense I have, is that many people came to the “I Am Troy Davis” momentum or the Slut Walk marches looking for a home, a place where they can sit back and feel comfortable in their hard (very hard!) work, and comforted by others who pat them on the head and tell them “good job.” This is not to dismiss genuine concern for the state of our world. Perhaps we’re all lonely, as the realities of social justice work have taken on different and palatable forms since WTO and 9/11. So many people are down for the immediate issue – the indefensible execution of Troy Davis, the indefensible perpetuation of sexual violence — and that matters. But I worry that many white people aren’t paying attention to the larger structures in place. They are not being reflexive about the realities of racism that undergird prison incarceration, death penalty, and sexual violence.

I am not Troy Davis; I never will be. A system built on the foundation of racism ensures that I will not confront the realities of prison incarceration in the same ways as Black and Latino people. I am a strong advocate against sexual violence, but I cannot fight in and for a movement that is not interested in the realities of racism and the ways that racism undergirds sexual violence, and instead so blindly employs racist language. (The “Occupy Wall Street” actions call for me again the realities of racism and its necessity within the existing structure of capitalism – and the insistence among white people that people of Color indulge a luxury of time and money to sit in with them is untenable and racist. Many others have pointed out that the language of “occupation” is inherently problematic because bodies and lands have been historically occupied, often through sexual violence and criminalization. The movement itself needs to be decolonized.) Even as I support openly the prison abolition movement, the end to sexual violence, and the uprooting of a socioeconomic system that ignores the 99%, I cannot do so without deep awareness of racism that is operating within and among these movements. It is my work as a white activist to speak to and be aware of these legacies and histories of racism. Women and men of Color need not be alone in the front lines of identifying racist action and reaction within the movement. Insisting that people of Color have a voice only when it comes to identifying racism perpetuates, rather than alleviates racism. As I look at the actions of some people within these movements, I am reminded again that the racism of the supposed left is even more damaging and hurtful than the naked racism of the right.

If we are to work together in solidarity, we must do so reflexively, conscious of our actions and the potential outcomes before we act. This is not a call to focus on criticism and self-reflection to the point that we are inactive. That is unproductive, to be sure. But it is a call to be mindful and vigilant about racist action and reaction, to come to terms with the fact that we must do the work of understanding racist underpinnings of prison incarceration, the death penalty, and sexual violence if we are to make significant progress. Undoing racism must be at the core of our collective work across movements. To echo Dr. Reagon’s statement, we need to be honest and ask if we really want people of Color or if we’re just looking for ourselves with a little color to it. So much of the movement work, as it stands, seems to be looking for a little color, when we need to be exploring the realities of racism as part of the problem, not an additive to the “real” issue. In the absence of reflexivity about the structural forces that are keeping us apart, we will never be able to engage in real coalition work that will be required if we are to take seriously our goals of ending sexual violence and the death penalty. These movements as they are going now may continue, but they will not do so in my name and certainly not without my consent.

So no, I am not Troy Davis. I am not a slut. I am not an occupier of Wall Street or any street. The fights are my fights, but the current methods and analyses are not mine. I cannot sit by and listen to people debate the efficacy of the death penalty without understanding that it is the larger complex of incarceration and the “elementary-to-penitentiary” path that tracks and traps Black and Latino youth by design. I am done with the handwringing and “white lady tears” of so many white women who keep defending racist approaches and actions and, at times, respond with violence when confronted and challenged. Such behavior only reinforces the fact that these movement spaces as they are currently defined are not safe. My friend, colleague, and sister-in-spirit Aishah Shahidah Simmons said it best when she commented, “It’s sobering to observe how White solidarity is taking precedence over principled responses…. ” Sobering, indeed. I will most assuredly fight to end the prison industrial complex, sexual violence, and unbridled capitalism, but I will do so from a space that centers the racist roots of incarceration, criminal “justice,” capitalism, and sexual violence. Thankfully, those spaces already exist – even if they remain peripheral in the mainstream media (and in much of what is left of the lefty media). But it is time to pivot the center. Without reflexive analysis of racism and coalition work grounded in antiracist movement, we miss the real root of the problem as well as real opportunities to create change.

___________________________Stephanie Gilmore is a feminist activist and assistant professor of the women’s and gender studies department at Dickinson College. For the 2011-12 academic year, she is a postdoctoral fellow in women’s studies at Duke University. She is completing “Groundswell: Grassroots Feminist Activism in Postwar America” (Routledge, 2012) and has started a new research project on how students negotiate sexual violence on residential college campuses in the United States.

]]>http://notherapedocumentary.org/am-i-troy-davis-a-slut-or-what%e2%80%99s-troubling-me-about-the-absence-of-reflexivity-in-movements-that-proclaim-solidarity/feed0http://notherapedocumentary.org/am-i-troy-davis-a-slut-or-what%e2%80%99s-troubling-me-about-the-absence-of-reflexivity-in-movements-that-proclaim-solidarityAnother Black Feminist Critique of the film “The Help”http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NoTheRapeDocumentary/~3/ALac7gtRbs4/another-black-feminist-critique
http://notherapedocumentary.org/another-black-feminist-critique#commentsFri, 07 Oct 2011 22:54:41 +0000adminhttp://notherapedocumentary.org/another-black-feminist-critiqueI’m ‘Help(ed)’ Out And Yet, I Still Have Some Things To Say!

There have been numerous primarily Black feminist critiques of both the book and the film ‘The Help’. Most of the critiques deeply resonate with my feelings about both entities. Since it’s official release on August 10, 2011, I’ve dedicated probably too much time to reading and reposting many of the critiques by both Black and White women. While I’ve shared some of my concerns with some, I haven’t compiled all of them into one note up until now…

I didn’t like the book ‘The Help’ at all, but I believe it is ten times better than the film. If there were a plethora of films about the complexities of Black life, I wouldn’t care at all about the film ‘The Help’. However, since there aren’t that many films out there, combined with the fact that this film will be seen globally and probably go down in cinematic history as a classic, I’m personally very, very clear about my sheer disgust about it.

I saw the movie at a sneak promotional viewing and I was horrified. Now, I thought Viola Davis’ acting was phenomenal and Octavia Spencer’s was superb. They both did incredible work with the roles that they were given. In spite of this, I was and am deeply disturbed by the film’s subtle and not-so subtle racism. Yes, I know the film takes place in 1962 Mississippi, and one could argue that the film was depicting the time. While some of that is true, what’s also true is that, in my opinion, the film is racist, sexist and ahistorical.

I’m the great granddaughter, great-niece, and granddaughter of Black women who worked as domestics for racist and sexist White people both in the Jim Crow South and the (allegedly liberated) North. I am the daughter of a southern Black woman who spent 18-months (1964-1966) in Laurel, Mississippi working for SNCC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee). Hardly any of the stories that I heard, first hand throughout my life (and I’m in my 40s) from any of the aforementioned women or their friends, matched the portrayal of the Black women and their communities in the book or the film ‘The Help.’

There are many wonderful books by Black women authors who through fiction and fact poignantly address the realities of Black women domestic workers during the same time period that ‘The Help’ takes place. Some of those books received critical acclaim. And yet, those books aren’t turned into films. Several of those books have been listed in previous critiques of ‘The Help’ including Jennifer Williams essay and the Association of Black Women Historian’s Open Statement to the Fans of ‘The Help.’

In addition to those books, I reflect upon the very recently released Hands on the Freedom Plow: Personal Accounts by Women In SNCC, (edited by Faith S. Holsaert, Martha Prescod Norman Noonan, Judy Richardson, Betty Garman Robinson, Jean Smith Young, and Dorothy M. Zellner), which really highlights those unsung, many of whom were not formally educated women who changed the face of Amer-i-KKK-a in the Jim Crow South. I’m not talking about the multiracial SNCC workers themselves (per se); but those Black women (and men) who opened their homes and lives to the SNCC volunteers… Many of who were already doing radical and subversive work in the midst of working for “Miss Ann”… So many of the testimonies captured in this anthology are worthy of film or even their own independent book. In my mind’s eye, Hands on the Freedom Plow: Personal Accounts by Women in SNCC tells the stories of ordinary women (and men) doing extraordinary work.

My deep pain about all of the hoopla and fanfare about ‘The Help’ has to do with the fact that we very rarely EVER see a film where the sheer White male and female supremacist terror that Black people lived under (first during enslavement -which lasted for centuries, then throughout the Jim Crow era) is depicted. From DW Griffiths ‘The Birth Of A Nation,’ til present day, Hollywood has been committed to sanitizing and making light of excruciatingly painful, wretched, and inhumane times for millionS of African-Americans. This system has been able to do this through castigating, maligning, stereotyping, marginalizing, and dehumanizing people of African descent. There is something very uncanny and disturbing about this, to say the very least.

While some have critiqued Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer and other Black actresses featured in ‘The Help,’ I understand that they are caught between a rock and a hard place. It’s hard out here for Black women (and men) actors in the Hollywood (or Hollyweird, as Toni Cade Bambara used to call it) system. When one turns down a role based on their principles and dignity, another one will gladly accept that role. I’m sad that roles in ‘The Help’ are the options for phenomenal actresses like Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer. In many ways, it appears as if this vicious racist and sexist cycle will never ever get broken.

My questions are how do we stop this powerful system – Hollywood, which influences the world, from its ongoing cinematic racist, sexist, heterosexist/homophobic/ transphobic, and classist assaults not only on communities of African descent, but also on Latina/o, Arab, Indigenous, Asian, Pacific, Islander, Roma (Gypsy), and Southwest Asian communities…? When does ENOUGH become ENOUGH?

I’m concerned about the messages that are conveyed through ‘The Help.’ If you aren’t formally educated, you need a White woman to document and tell your story in order for it to get heard… Then the White woman leaves town to make it big in NYC, and you’re safe(?) in 1960s White Supremacist Terrorist Mississippi after getting fired for breaking your silence…? Or, your battered by your Black husband, and the White woman you taught how to cook, stays up all night to prepare the most delicious meal you’ve ever had. You were so moved by that meal, that you leave your abusive husband.

Foremost, are we really okay with these types of depictions of White women as the sole saviors to Black women’s lives, which are presented as historical fact? Equally as important, is this an accurate HERstory? And if it is, which I doubt, how often did this happen? Was there real Sisterhood based on equality between Black women domestic workers and their White women employers? How does this story foster sisterhood based on equality between Black and White women contemporarily?

To quote Black feminist political scientist Melissa Harris-Perry “’The Help’ reduces systematic, violent racism, sexism & labor exploitation to a cat fight that can be won with cunning spunk.”

Again, if there were a plethora of films about the complexities of Black life, then ‘The Help’ would be another film… But, it’s not another film. For many, painfully similar to how the ahistorical film ‘Mississippi Burning’ became the cinematic representation of the disappearance of civil rights workers ~Schwerner, Goodman, and Chaney; ‘The Help’ will be the cinematic representation of life for Black women domestic workers and their White women employers in Mississippi in the1960s.

To add insult to injury, the HSN (Home Shopping Network) has launched its on collection, inspired by ‘The Help.’ This is SO egregious and inhumane. In my opinion, it’s another example of how a painful part of African-American her/history (and what should be an embarrassing part of American her/history) has been sanitized and commodofied. To quote my Sister, Patricia Lesesne, “What are they {HSN} selling? Bullets, rape kits, nooses, tear-stained blouses, men’s dress shirts with blood spattered on them? Exactly which pieces from this time in US history are going to be sold on the HSN? Are they going to bottle up the essence of fear, terror, and humiliation in 6oz bottles and sell them as a fragrance trio gift set. What the hell is going on?” Yes, Patricia, what the HELL is going on in 2011?

One way we can resist this insanity is by supporting (non-Hollywood supported/funded) Independent Cinema. There are many, many filmmakers who are creating powerful narrative and documentary films, which depict the complexities of lives of people who, based on their race/ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, class and/or religion, are too often marginalized or worse, dehumanized by the Hollywood system.

If you see ‘The Help’, be an engaged spectator. It’s important that there is critical engagement and interrogation, even if, sigh and gasp, you LOVE the film. I think it’s important that all movie goers take time to really reflect upon the inherent messages not only in ‘The Help’ but all movies because there are always overt and covert messages that each one of us absorbs.

*******************

Beah Richards’ (unfortunately) timeless (one-woman) play “A Black Woman Speaks of White Womanhood” is in my opinion, the best response to Kathryn Stockett’s “The Help”. Written in 1951, it is still most appropriate.

]]>http://notherapedocumentary.org/another-black-feminist-critique/feed1http://notherapedocumentary.org/another-black-feminist-critique“Woman is the ‘N’ of the World?” (at SlutWalk?)http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NoTheRapeDocumentary/~3/6MJdpCIc3Bw/woman-is-the-n-of-the-world
http://notherapedocumentary.org/woman-is-the-n-of-the-world#commentsFri, 07 Oct 2011 22:29:40 +0000adminhttp://notherapedocumentary.org/woman-is-the-n-of-the-worldWoman is the “N” of the World?

Several Black feminists, including Pearl Cleage, challenged Yoko Ono’s racist (to Black women) statement. “If Woman is the “N” of the World, what does that make Black Women, the “N, N” of the World?”

Fast forward 42-years later from when it was originally coined, and a White woman decides to create and carry a placard of the quote to SlutWalk NYC.

I’ve been informed that one of the (Black) women SlutWalk NYC organizers asked the woman to take her placard down. She did. However, not before there were many photographs taken.

My question is, Why did it take a Black woman organizer to ask her to take it down? What about all of the White women captured in this photograph? They didn’t find this sign offensive? Paraphrasing Sojourner Truth, “Ain’t I A Woman (too!)?”

ERADICATING RACISM SHOULD NOT BE THE SOLE RESPONSIBILITY OF PEOPLE OF COLOR.

How can so many White feminists be absolutely clear about the responsibility of ALL MEN TO END heterosexual violence perpetrated against women, and yet turn a blind eye to THEIR RESPONSIBILITY TO END racism?

Is Sisterhood Global? This picture says NO! very loudly and very clearly.

The fact that this quote originates from a woman of color, Yoko Ono, really underscores the work that we women of color must do to educate each other about our respective herstories. This photograph also underscores the imperative need for hardcore inter-racial dialogues among all of us in these complicated movements to address gender-based violence in all of our non-monolithic communities.

Co-signing with my Sister Andrea Plaid that at the fundamental level this photograph speaks to the very sobering reality that there is a level of acceptable racism going on within (some?) SlutWalkS (not a monolith).

There is something deeply uncanny that, in 2011, this White woman would think it was OK to create and carry a sigh with the “N” word at a SlutWalk. What on earth was she thinking? Who in the United States of Ameri-KKK-a doesn’t know that the “N” word is NOT okay to use, most especially if you’re not Black.

POSTSCRIPT: I have supported and still support the premise of SlutWalks. In August I participated as a speaker at SlutWalk Philly.

I discuss the reasons why I, as a Black feminist lesbian incest and rape survivor, have supported the premise of SlutWalks in fairly great detail in my September 30 interview with Where Is Your Line?

At the same time, I think it’s very important that everyone read and discuss the very important and poignant concerns raised in Black Women’s Blueprint’s “Open Letter from Black Women to the SlutWalk.”

Clearly there is an urgent and non-negotiable need for dialogues to happen in the immediate future.

Here is a short list of selected essays by some Black (American) Feminists who have weighed in on the horrific impact of both the sign and the defense of the sign.

UPDATE:Kimberlynn Acevedo, one of SlutWalk NYC’s organizers has posted a statement in response to the sign, and has announced plans to continue the dialogue.

Here is an excerpt:

One of our march’s participants last Saturday held up and promulgated a racist, offensive sign. She was asked to take it down by one of our organizers as soon as it came to our attention. This sign symbolizes many of the critiques about SlutWalk not being a safe space for people of color, in particular Black women. We are taking it seriously and we absolutely condemn it and are horrified by it. This sign opposes the mission of SlutWalk NYC and its message is in direct conflict with the beliefs of its organizers. …

We are meeting with many of the groups which have critiqued SlutWalk NYC directly. We are meeting with Black Women’s Blueprint. We are attending an open meeting with Sister Song. We are holding a completely open meeting on October 13 at Walker Stage from 6-8 p.m. in order to discuss how to build a fighting movement. Further, we encourage everyone to take a look at the transcripts and videos of the speeches we have posted on our website and Facebook. We know we need to grow. We have been working on growth from the beginning. There were powerful, diverse and engaging speeches at the rally, many of which directly hit upon critiques of SlutWalk. THESE are the seeds of growth in our organization. We want to start a movement that passionately wants include the voices of all people, of all survivors, of all individuals who see merit in what it is that we are choosing to combat.

In this very extensive interview, Aishah talked about Toni Cade Bambara, Vipassana Meditation, People of Color practicing the teachings of Buddha, Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth (the film), Liberation from Within (the film), NO! The Rape Documentary, Rape, Incest, Consent, Celibacy, Palestine, Troy Anthony Davis, SlutWalk, and Wangari Maathai.

photographed by Calvin Finley

It’s Friday, and we all know what that means! Interviews with your favorite badass feminists and activists. Whether social media queens and kings, creative artists, sex educators, or just kick-ass personalities, these people harness righteous anger, instigate movements and inspire cultural change. We’re here to honor them and their work, but more importantly, to highlight how we can all get up, plug in, and?Just Start Doing.

My interview partner this week is?Aishah Shahidah Simmons, documentary filmmaker, writer, lecturer and activist. She’s the producer, writer and director of?NO! The Rape Documentary, and she screens her work all around the world. You can follow her and her work at?@AfroLez and?@InnerLiberation.

Here’s what we talked about:

You’re a filmmaker, writer, lecturer and activist. That’s a lot of hats to wear. Why don’t you start by telling us what your day-to-day works looks like right now.

Yes, it is a lot of hats to wear, which is why I also use cultural worker. That term was taught to me in 1990 by?Toni Cade Bambara, who was a Black feminist cultural worker extraordinaire, my teacher, and my Big Sista-friend. Every day is literally a new and different day. However, there are some things that rarely change. I’m a practitioner of?vipassana meditation. Part of my practice is to meditatively sit twice a day, every day for an hour at each sitting. I used to be and, at times, I still am very resistant to sitting because I viewed it as a time obstacle to my doing my cultural work. Life experiences, however, consistently show me that sitting is a non-negotiable resource that enables me to do my cultural work. After sitting, I do some form of exercise (walking or swimming are my preferences) and then I’m usually able to begin the external work. I check my email, facebook, and twitter accounts. I also check various blogs and other sites. If I allow it, the aforementioned can very literally consume my entire day and night because it’s non-stop action on the cyber highway…

Throughout the majority of her activist life, Steinem has had strong alliances and been engaged in political and professional partnerships with a wide range of known and unknown Black women activists and writers. In the August 15, 2011 SFGate article Gloria Steinem had strong influence on [B]lack women, Black feminist author Evelyn C. White wrote:

As national treasurer of the 1970s-era Free Angela Davis campaign, Steinem was a critical link in the legal defense of the Oakland scholar then jailed for her radical politics. She crafted the television speech that black Rep. Shirley Chisholm (1924-2005) delivered in her historic 1972 bid for the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party. And it was at Steinem?s direction that Ms., in the early 1970s, began to publish Alice Walker and later appointed her one of the first black editors at the magazine. This, long before the author won international acclaim for her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Color Purple

Steinem’s activism and journalism have played a pivotal role in co-creating a feminist lens on a wide range of issues including but not limited to reproductive rights, political activism, union organizing, politics of representation in media/journalism, opposition to wars in Vietnam and the Gulf (past and contemporarily), lesbian and gay rights, female genital mutilation, pornography, and same-sex marriage. Her essays, articles, and bestselling books are viewed as classic feminist writings from which many view as road maps on their own activist journeys.

I am a 42-year old Black feminist lesbian who identifies as a member of the generation of Third Wave Feminists. I was raised in two households (my mother’s and my father’s) where women’s liberation was never viewed as being in contradiction to Black liberation. My mother,Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons, was the first self-identified feminist I ever knew. I would definitely say that based on how they lived their lives, my grandmothers and great-aunts were feminists, though they never used that term to describe themselves. As a result of my rearing from both my mother and my father,Michael Simmons, I always thought both women?s liberation and Black liberation were necessary. Since adolescence, I’ve understood that I could not have one without the other. I have been consciously pro-choice/pro women’s reproductive freedom since I was ten years old. I have called myself a feminist since I was a teenager.

Additionally, in both of my homes, a subscription to Ms. magazine was as important as a subscription to Essence magazine (this was in the 1970s and 1980s when Essence was a much more radical magazine than it is today). Gloria Steinem’s writings occupied space on the bookshelves in both of my divorced parents’ homes. When I came of age as a young woman, I purchased Gloria’s books for my own emerging library(along with the books of numerous Black feminist writers including?but not limited toToni Cade Bambara,Audre Lorde,Alice Walker,ntozake shange,Barbara Smith,bell hooks,Pat Parker,Beverly Guy-Sheftall,Toni Morrison,Sonia Sanchez,June Jordan, andPearl Cleage). I also subscribed to Ms. and Essence magazines. Up until 2004, I don’t believe I had any direct contact with Gloria Steinem, but I certainly was inspired by her activism and followed it closely.

I virtually met Gloria Steinem in the fall of 2004 through Kevin Powell, a dear friend, comrade, and one of the earlier supporters of the making of my documentary NO!. At that time, I was in my tenth year of financially struggling to make this feature-length documentary, which would unveil the realities of rape, other forms of sexual violence, and healing in African American communities. I literally thought I was at the end of my rope; and couldn’t take another step further. I wrote and sent out an email to group of people including, definitely, Kevin. The email was a serious cry for help. In response to my plea, Kevin forwarded my email to a select group in his network of friends and colleagues with the hope that someone would be able to financially assist me and help push me either closer to or over the finish line. Gloria Steinem was one of those people to whom Kevin forwarded my email.

Upon receiving the email from Kevin, Gloria immediately reached out and applauded me on my efforts and commitment to forge ahead in spite of the resistance. She reminded me that feminist truth telling is very rarely easy and hardly ever rewarded. Gloria also shared information about the Gloria Fund at the Ms. Foundation for Women, a possible funding source. Now, I need to underscore that while I knew who Gloria Steinem was, I did not know Gloria and she did not know me. Gloria wrote me without having viewed a trailer or the rough cut of NO!. To the best of my knowledge, other than reading Kevin’s email introducing me followed by my email, she had no additional information about NO! (i.e., no proposal, brochure, flyer, etc.). And yet, she responded to her friend and comrade, Kevin Powell’s, call to support a Black woman making a film about addressing and ending sexual violence in African-American communities. She wrote me to offer moral support and to strategize about how I may be able to secure funding.

There are many instances on my 11-year journey to make NO! where I was completely humbled. Many of those instances include receiving support, both behind and in front of the NO! camera lens and from trailblazing women whose activism, scholarship, and cultural work literally broke the ground upon which I stood. Gloria Steinem reaching out to me was one of those profoundly memorable moments.

I received a post-production grant from the Gloria Steinem Fund of the Ms. Foundation for Women, which literally kept me from failing financially. Equally as important, Gloria’s email in response to my email via Kevin (which I have in my NO! archives), arrived in my inbox at that right moment. I will always be grateful to Kevin for his unwavering support of NO!, expressed in a myriad of ways, including his introducing me to Gloria Steinem. I also remain grateful to Gloria Steinem for reaching out to a stranger trying to and ultimately completing her Black feminist documentary.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to view Gloria: In Her Own Words, during its broadcast run on HBO. Unfortunately, I don’t have HBO. I look forward, however, to viewing it either online with a friend/colleague who has a subscription to HBO, or when it’s available on DVD. I have, however, made note of my Sister Shelby Knox’s appreciation of the HBO documentary while also wishing for a deeper treatment of Gloria Steinem’s philosophy and activism. Additionally and again admitting that I have not seen the program, based on what I read about the documentary, by Dana Goldstein, I’m concerned that there may not be many voices (not solely archival footage of) of women of Color who worked with Gloria over the past 40-years.

Clearly, there have been and are struggles around race and (mis)representation in the mainstream feminist movement. As a result of these struggles, tremendous inroads were made in this movement over the past 40-years. I believe that is a testament to the multi-racial metaphorical and literal kitchen table gatherings where some of the most difficult and at times painful dialogues took place. Gloria initiated some of those dialogues. She existed as an integral part of many of those dialogues. Furthermore, she has been challenged and, as a result, has changed because of those dialogues. This is a part of Gloria’s legacy that younger feminists of all races need to know, as many of these struggles remain as real today as yesterday. One need not look any further than the overwhelming Black feminist critical responses to the recent release of the film The Help in comparison to the minimal White feminist critical responses to the film.

As a documentary filmmaker, I know the power the moving image to document her/histories. While I’m elated there is a documentary film that chronicles significant parts of Gloria’s journey called life, I most definitely agree with my Sister Shelby, who is almost twenty years younger than I,when she wrote “those of us who consider ourselves active duty members of today’s feminist movement, would be better served with more information about Gloria the radical, forward-thinking activist that she continues to be than about ‘St. Gloria.”"

“Those of us who stand outside the circle of this society’s definition of acceptable women; those of us who have been forged in the crucibles of difference – those of us who are poor, who are lesbians, who are Black, who are older – know that survival is not an academic skill. It is learning how to stand alone, unpopular and sometimes reviled, and how to make common cause with those others identified as outside the structures in order to define and seek a world in which we can all flourish. It is learning how to take our differences and make them strengths.”

Black. Lesbian. Feminist. Mother. Warrior. Poet. Audre Lorde’s written words taught me that my silence will not protect me, and that silence is not golden. I am a Black feminist lesbian who is a survivor of incest and rape. When I was ten, my paternal (step)grandfather molested me over a period of two years; and when I was 12 the eldest son of a family friend fondled me. My rape happened when I was a soon to be 20 year old sophomore in college. I was on a study abroad program and broke all of the university-enforced rules to go out, very late at night, with the man who would become my rapist. In spite of my having second thoughts about going out with this new acquaintance, I was both afraid to articulate them and to turn around because my friends were covering for me. In the hotel room, for which I paid, I told my rapist “I don’t want to do this. Please stop.” I didn’t “violently” fight back. I didn’t scream or yell to the top of my lungs” because I was afraid. I didn’t want to make a “scene.” I blamed myself for saying, “Yes”…for breaking the rules…for paying for the hotel room.

The morning following my rape, I went back to where the school housed us and lied to my friends. I didn’t tell them that I was forced to have sex against my will. In an effort to both deny what happened on the night of my rape and to be in control of my body, I had consensual sex with another man that evening. When it was time to return home to the United States, I was pregnant and didn’t know which of the two men was the biological father. I was fortunate to have a safe and legal abortion at the Elizabeth Blackwell Health Center for Women in Philadelphia, PA.

And, before I continue, I want to be explicitly and unequivocally clear that I am NOT a lesbian because I was molested and raped. I am a lesbian because I’m attracted to and love women. So, please do not walk away making the homophobic and heterosexist comment “Oh, that’s why Aishah is a lesbian. It’s because she was molested and raped.”

WRONG.

If molestation and rape made women and girls lesbians, then most of the girls and women in the world would be lesbians. Just check the global statistics on molestation and rape.

I share what some of you might view as personal, private—and perhaps—seemingly unnecessary because the personal is directly related not only to the political but also the professional in my life.

Now, I admit when Executive Organizer Hannah Altman invited me to be a speaker at SlutWalk Philadelphia, I was very, very apprehensive. However, after quite a bit of thought and deliberation; and in spite of my many conflicting feelings as a Black feminist lesbian whose contemporary reality and ancestral lineage has been rooted in the legalized name calling/marginalizing/denigration of mind/body/spirit for centuries without too much recourse, I accepted the invitation to be a speaker.

I am here today because I want to see an end to the victim-blaming in my lifetime, and I’m 42-years old. No, victim-blaming is not going to stop because we are all here participating in SlutWalk Philadelphia. If only it were that easy. However, I believe it is important that the faces, voices, and perspectives of women of color (inclusive of all sexualities) and trans people of color are seen and heard. Documented herstory and contemporary reality has shown us that more often than not, it is our bodies that catch the most hell not only by the State but also by people in and out of our communities (however we define them). It is our bodies that have a demonstrated track record of being on the frontlines of the movements to end all forms of oppression.

I believe words are very, very powerful. At the same time, I really struggle with many who are hostile to the “SlutWalks” because they say it gives the wrong message. What is the right message? I think about Take Back the Night, which was founded in the early ’70s, when I was a toddler. As strange as it may seem today, especially now that Take Back the Night has become an “acceptable” movement throughout this country and globally, I know there was resistance. I’m sure some, if not many people took the position, ‘What do you mean take back the night? You shouldn’t be out at night!’

Personally, I do not embrace the word Slut at all… And, at the same time, I will not say or subscribe to the patriarchal and misogynistic thinking that “we can’t do this or that type of behavior; or wear this or that type of clothing and not expect to get harassed, fondled, and/or raped.

There are some places in the world that would say that presently, I’m not properly covered in what I view as very modest attire (by most US standards). There are many in the United States; and throughout the world who believe I should be raped, assaulted, and/or harassed for the mere fact that I’m an unapologetically OUT Feminist Lesbian.

Where do we draw the lines of who can and can’t be rape, assaulted, harassed, and/or called vicious and vitriolic names? Why are we okay with RAPE being the penalty for ANY type of behavior (including heterosexual women having multiple sexual partners) or for wearing ANY type of attire of clothing (including thongs and bustier? ). This line of thinking is inhumane, egregious, wretched, and should be unacceptable.

Sexual violence is one of the only crimes where the victim behavior’s determines if a crime happened or not. I could be in a drug-infested neighborhood with a lot of money on my person and even bragging about my money and showing it off. If someone steals my money, they are a thief, plain and simple. Yes, one could say “Aishah, what were you doing with all that money in that neighborhood. Are you crazy?” And yet, at the same time, it would be clear that I was robbed. If I left my macbook pro in Starbucks and someone stole it, we may think I was dumb for leaving it there, but that doesn’t take away the fact that someone stole my macbook pro.

How can we have more empathy for the loss of money or even the loss of a computer than the (hopefully, temporary) loss of one’s body for a few seconds, moments, hours, or even days? Why do we tend to be clear about the impact of the loss of material possessions in ways that we don’t want to be clear about the impact of the loss of the right to ones own body. For too many, rape has become a word, almost devoid of the horrifying experience from which too many of us never ever fully recover.

There is something very disturbing and painful that there is this widespread (as in global) notion that material possessions are worth more than a woman’s body… There is something wrong that too many of us believe that a woman doesn’t have the right to show or flaunt her body, if she desires… That a woman doesn’t have a right to agree to one form of sexual activity and not agree to another form of sexual activity. That she doesn’t have the right to say “yes,” and then have the courage or even the audacity to change her mind and say “no.” Whose body is it anyway? Contrary to global belief, it’s not the perpetrators body. And yet, too many of us defend the perpetrators RIGHT to violate the body of another.

When will we stop treating boys and men as if they are wild beastly animals or innocent toddlers (not sure which one) who can’t control their words and/or actions? When will we put the blame on the perpetrators? When will we stop saying “Well, women have to take some responsibility?” Take responsibility for what, men and boys being unable to control themselves resulting in them violating a woman or girl’s body because of what she said, wore, and/or did?

Really.?!

Again, I ask where do we draw the lines of who can and can’t be assaulted, harassed, and/or raped? As long as there is any group of people including but not limited to adolescent and teenage “fast” girls, women, trans people, queer people, and sex workers who are marginalized, then all of us are vulnerable both because it’s all subjective; and the lines of the margins shift all of the time. Who’s acceptable today may not be acceptable tomorrow.

We must stop subscribing to this notion that rape is the justifiable penalty for ANY type of behavior or attire of clothing that we may not like or even disapprove of.

We must centralize the margins of the margins of the margins of society so that ALL of us are free from assault, harassment, rape, and other forms of sexual violence. No One Is Free While Others Are Oppressed. NO ONE IS FREE WHILE OTHERS ARE OPPRESSED.

“When poet and speaker Aishah Shahidah Simmons addresses the crowd, she comes on like a lion. “History has shown it is our bodies that catch the most hell,” she says.” Though she does not identify as a poet, Simmons most definitely spoke with passionate fire about ending all forms of sexual violence.

The Philadelphia Weekly was one of few media outlets (WHYY, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Philadelphia Gay News being the others) who gave SlutWalk Philadelphia appropriate coverage.

]]>http://notherapedocumentary.org/philadelphia-weekly-covers-slutwalk-philadelphia/feed0http://notherapedocumentary.org/philadelphia-weekly-covers-slutwalk-philadelphiaRape Survivors Should Not Take The Weight of Shame & Blamehttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NoTheRapeDocumentary/~3/Fc5Zw_LsRmU/rape-survivors-should-not-take-the-weight-of-shame-blame
http://notherapedocumentary.org/rape-survivors-should-not-take-the-weight-of-shame-blame#commentsFri, 12 Aug 2011 18:39:55 +0000adminhttp://notherapedocumentary.org/rape-survivors-should-not-take-the-weight-of-shame-blameAishah Shahidah Simmons Believes Perpetrators Should Carry Responsibility for Rape, NOT the Victim/Survivors

On the eve before the SlutWalk Philadelphia, Aishah Shahidah Simmons expressed absolute clarity about who is responsible for sexual violence ~ the perpetrators.

In an August 5, 2011 WHYY NewsWorks article, Simmons said “Shame or blame should never be on the survivors. It should be put on the perpetrator. Words like slut and whore should not play a role in how we view women who have been raped or assaulted. That’s what happens: she’s a slut, she’s a whore, she deserves what she gets. For me it’s really challenging, this name-calling.”

One of the common critiques of SlutWalk is that it isn’t racially inclusive. How did you get involved with the Philly march?

The organizers reached out to me and asked if I was willing to be one of the speakers. [At first] I was indifferent to the SlutWalk movement. I kind of cringed at the title. But the more I read about it, the more I was like, ‘Yeah!’

What bothered you about it?

Well, black women have been called sluts, whores and skank whores from the beginning. So I wondered why we would embrace the term ‘slut’ [without] any kind of analysis about what it means for all women, but especially women of color. Also, I just wasn’t sure if this was a multiracial movement. But it’s grown a lot; there’s a SlutWalk in the works in Malaysia, a Muslim country where a lot of the women are covered!

On August 4, 2011, award-winning filmmaker Aishah Shahidah Simmons and noted journalist and author Rebecca Traister engaged in a very lively dialogue with host Marty Moss-Coane and callers about the SlutWalk movement on WHYY’s Radio Times. Philly hosted their first SlutWalkon Saturday, August 6, 2011.

Many of the poignant issues raised and discussed on the program are very relevant to anyone interested in addressing and ending all forms of gender-based violence globally.

Recently, I was invited to be a speaker at SlutWalk Philadelphia, which will be held on Saturday, August 6, 2011. After quite a bit of thought and deliberation; and in spite of my many conflicting feelings as a Black feminist lesbian whose contemporary reality and ancestral lineage has been rooted in name calling/marginalizing/denigration of mind/body/spirit for centuries without too much recourse, I accepted the invitation to be a speaker. I accepted the invitation because I want to see an end to the victim blaming in my lifetime. No, victim blaming is not going to stop because I agreed to participate in SlutWalk Philadelphia. If only it were that easy. However, I believe it is important that the faces, voices, and perspectives of women of color (inclusive of all sexualities) and trans people of color are seen and heard. More often than not, it is our bodies who catch the most hell not only by the State but by people in and out of our communities (however we define them). It is our bodies who have a demonstrated track record of being on the frontlines of the movements to end all forms of oppression.

I?m absolutely positively thrilled and honored to share the SlutWalk Philadelphia stage with Stephanie Gilmore who is a radical feminist scholar/activist and Qui Alexander who is a radical trans activist/educator of Color. These two individuals have a demonstrated track record of tackling those issues that very few of us want to tackle and address. I believe that SlutWalk Philadelphia’s invitation to each of us shows their understanding of and commitment to ensuring that both this ?Walk? and the issues addressed are not seen as only relevant to mainstream (read White and heterosexual) feministS. It is not until the margins of the margins are centralized that any of us will truly be free.

On May 19, 2011, Black feminist writer and professor Jennifer Williams, Ph.D., wrote on the sobering prevalence of rape, sexual assault, and other forms of gender-based violence in the United States for the Ms. Magazine Blog. Using NO! The Rape Documentary as the backdrop to this peace (piece), Professor Williams delved into the victim blaming coverage of the Cleveland, TX gang rape of an adolescent girl, the growing incidences of sex trafficking; and the successful ?feminist campaign to get colleges, universities, and K-12 schools to take take preventative measures against sexual violence.

Following is the excerpt of the article…

“It took filmmaker and activist Aishah Shahidah Simmons 13 years to fund, produce, direct and release her inspirational and defiant NO! The Rape Documentary. NO! brings together archival footage, testimonies of rape survivors, performances and interviews with activists and scholars to examine rape in African American communities through a black feminist lens. The international acclaim for the film?it?s been screened in Africa, Asia and Europe as well as South and North America?confirms that black women?s stories resonate across all borders. In spite of differences in culture and language, many women see NO! as telling their own stories.

NO! isn?t a new film?it came out in 2006?but in a climate in which rape makes daily headlines as a tool to subjugate and terrorize women, it?s as timely as ever. When DOXA invited Ms. magazine?s global editor, Robin Morgan, to guest curate a film for this spring?s festival in Vancouver, Canada, she immediately chose NO! And when the Spring issue of Ms. magazine challenged the FBI?s dangerously narrow definition of rape in bold neon letters, I too thought of NO! and Skyped Simmons to talk about her groundbreaking film, the FBI?s archaic definition of rape, the gang rape of an 11-year-old girl in Cleveland, TX, sex trafficking and many other issues.

‘NO! gives voice to the experiences that the majority of us have had ?and I speak as a victim and survivor of acquaintance rape,’ said Simmons during our conversation…”

On June 9, 2011, Aishah Shahidah Simmons was the featured guest on Shawna Renee’s “Cocoa Mode” radio program, which is hosted on SiriusXM Satellite Radio 128. During the 45-minute interview, Shawna Renee and Simmons discussed the controversy surrounding Rihanna’s ‘Man Down,’ and NO! The Rape Documentary. The interview ultimately turned into a wonderful opportunity to really engage in an in-depth dialogue between Ms. Renee and Ms. Simmons; and with calls from listeners about gender-based violence.

CLICK HERE to (re)view Rihanna’s music video and to listen to the archive of the radio program.

“How have you explored discovering and understanding your own pleasure in your life?” ~ The Consensual Project

“As a survivor of incest, molestation, and rape, discovering and understanding my own pleasure has been and still is a work-in-progress. For the most part, throughout adulthood, I?ve been fortunate to have partners who I was able to consensually explore my own and their own pleasure. This has occurred through talking about pleasure and what that means in the context of being a survivor, where certain acts can trigger me. My understanding my own pleasure occurred during consensual trial and error to see what worked and what didn?t work.” ~Aishah Shahidah Simmons

This interview was conducted in May 2011, which is ancient in this fast paced social media world. However, the fundamental human right to consent is still viewed as rocket science. Therefore, this interview and more importantly, The Consensual Project is as relevant as ever.

at 2011 DOXA Film Festival

Feminist activist, prolific author, and former editor of Ms. magazine Robin Morgan guest curated NO! The Rape Documentary for the 2011 DOXA Film Festival. DOXA is Western Canada’s largest documentary film festival. This is an important honor for NO! for two major reasons. One, founder/leader of US contemporary feminism, Robin Morgan has also been a leader in the international women’s movement for 30 years and counting. She has published over 20 books including the now-classic anthology Sisterhood Is Global. In her essay, “NO! A Film of Sexual Politics – An Art,” Morgan writes:

“…Since the invitation to be a guest curator, I’ve thought of so many films crucial to the flowering of global feminism, to the coming to voice of women -more than half of humanity- that my list was more than enough for a complete festival… But at heart I knew from the first what my choice was going to be: an extraordinary, feature-length documentary 11 years in the making, the creation of one stubborn, visionary woman, Aishah Shahidah Simmons. Simmons conceived, wrote, directed and produced NO! The Rape Documentary, a ground-breaking film that explores the international reality of rape and other forms of sexual assault…”

Two, it is really an honor for Robin Morgan, an esteemed and internationally known feminist activist/author/activist/organizer to curate NO! for DOXA, a highly respected international documentary film festival five years after NO!’s world premiere at the 2006 Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles.

ClickHERE to read “NO! A Film of Sexual Politics – and Art,” by Robin Morgan on DOXA’s archived 2011 program website.

Aishah Shahidah Simmons will present NO! The Rape Documentary at DOXA on Saturday, May 14, 2011 at 4pm at the Vancity Theatre.

For more information about the presentation of NO! at the 2011 DOXA Film Festival, clickHERE

I’m grateful to DOXA for this chance to sing the praises of documentary films. Since the invitation to be a guest curator, I’ve thought of so many films crucial to the flowering of global feminism, to the coming to voice of women — more than half of humanity — that my list was more than enough for a complete festival. There were classics like Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust, or Canada’s own Not a Love Story, the first exposé of the violence inherent in pornography, a film by Bonnie Sherr, who’s recently made such brilliant documentaries as Shameless, about artists with disabilities. And there were more recent gems, like Gini Reticker’s and Abigail Disney’s Pray the Devil Back to Hell about the amazing women who pieced Liberia back together from the ruins of dictatorship.

But at heart I knew from the first what my choice was going to be: an extraordinary, feature-length documentary 11 years in the making, the creation of one stubborn, visionary woman, Aishah Shahidah Simmons. Simmons conceived, wrote, directed and produced NO! The Rape Documentary — a ground-breaking film that explores the international reality of rape and other forms of sexual assault.

Herself an incest and rape survivor, the daughter of a civil-rights activist (who is also a rape survivor and who appears, movingly, in NO!), the filmmaker founded AfroLez Productions in 1990 (“AfroLez” defines the culturally conscious role of black women who identify as Afrocentric, lesbian, and feminist). She co-produced two monthly public television programs for a Philadelphia PBS affiliate. Her acclaimed short videos Silence…Broken (1993) and In My Father’s House (1996), explore the intersected issues of race, gender, homophobia, rape and misogyny.

But it is NO!, officially released in 2006, that has come to have a vivid life of its own, as its electric energy connects with women around the globe. It has been shown at film festivals, community centers, colleges and universities and high schools, prisons, conferences, rape-crisis centers, and battered-women’s shelters, and screened by government agencies and non-governmental organizations both, in Brazil, Burkina Faso, Canada, Colombia, Croatia, England, France, Guadeloupe, Hungary, India, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Nepal, The Netherlands, Peru, Rwanda, Serbia, South Africa, Spain, Turkey and Venezuela.

In 2006, NO! won the Audience Choice Award and a Juried Award at the San Diego Women’s Film Festival. Most recently it won the juried Best Documentary Award at the 2008 India International Women’s Film Festival. With a grant from the The Ford Foundation, Simmons coordinated the French, Spanish, and Portuguese subtitling of NO!; produced and directed the two-hour Breaking Silences: A Supplemental Video to NO!, and was the creative and editorial director of Unveiling the Silence: NO! The Rape Documentary Study Guide, co-created by Salamishah Tillet, Ph.D., and Rachel Afi Quinn. The website serves as a contact hub for activists and survivors globally; women post their own testimonials and connect with others about surviving assault, healing and activism (www.notherapedocumentary.org).

This film sings like a well-forged tool in the hands of all women. I write “all women” deliberately because it’s true — I’m moved to weep by the film’s power every time I see it. NO! is a report about the toll taken on all women, as rape (stranger rape, acquaintance rape, date rape, marital rape, incest rape, gang rape, ethnic rape, and more), plus sexual harassment, stalking, battery — violation — affects our daily lives. Women live with this: fear, implicit social limitations on movement, chilling effects on freedom. Betrayal by trusted male teachers or mentors or heroes or pastors or bosses or colleagues or nice-boys-next-door, by beloved blood relatives, by priests. Recurring flashbacks that terrorize victims, post-traumatic-stress disorders that plague survivors lifelong. Blaming of the victim (who must have “really wanted it,” who must have “asked for it”). Secrecy. Shame. This film is universal in that all women can find themselves in it.

Yet as a white, European-American woman, I can only imagine the validation, the silence-smashing relief, the enormity of truth finally being expressed, that an African-American woman must feel on viewing NO! — or a Latina, an Indigenous woman, an Asian-American, any woman of color.

Because this film is specifically about the realities of sexual violation for African-American and other women of color. Simmons’ bravery in forging this film is historic.

Communities of color are focused on fighting entrenched racism (blatant or subtle), and its accompanying griefs: poverty (and poverty-related heath issues), educational and employment discrimination, violence born of despair, high crime rates, etc. This battle against racism has sometimes been expressed as a struggle for black “manhood,” ostensibly robbed by a white power structure that would not hire black men but did hire black women — in largely low-paying service jobs — thus creating a so-called “black matriarchy.” (How working triply hard and being blamed for doing so is an empowering status is nonsensical, but every community has used women as scapegoats through history.) Despite this, black women have persistently dared raise issues of feminism/womanism: black women’s rights. They have critiqued the denial of sexual and familial violence in the community, the misogyny and homophobia of certain rap lyrics, the reluctance to denounce O.J. Simpson or Mike Tyson. Those women were of course accused of being “divisive” to the “larger struggle,” of “hanging out dirty linen in public,” sometimes even of being “race traitors.” Intra-community attacks rained down on such writers as Ntozake Shange, Alice Walker, even the great Toni Morrison — for daring to expose buried truths about black womanhood’s realities.

In the United States, one in three women will experience sexual assault in her lifetime. But though African-American women comprise approximately 7 percent of the U.S. population, they currently constitute 18.8 percent to 28 percent of sexual assault victims. So NO! is a film about racism as much as it is about sexism — as if the two were separable, which they’re not. (Racism is at the core of the idea of preserving some mythical “purity” of descent; in order to control such “purity” it’s imperative for patriarchy to control women’s reproductive systems and sexuality.) Similar appalling statistics resonate in other communities of color. The figures increase for lesbian women — who often suffer particularly vicious attacks “to teach them a lesson” about being “real women.”

The voices and faces in NO! present an array of experience and wisdom. We hear such distinguished academics as Johnnetta Cole and Beverly Guy Sheftall, womanist leaders like Barbara Smith, activists like Elaine Brown, church leaders, psychologists, sociologists, directors of rape-crisis centers — and most of all, survivors, trying to understand, trying to heal.

Because this is a film as much about healing as about violation. Whether a survivor is trying to cure herself from having been forcibly infected with HIV or from persistent nightmares and PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), she is fighting the poisonous aftermath of sexual assault in ways parallel to fighting the criminal act.

The women’s movement has said for decades that rape is a form of sexual politics, that sexual violence is not about sex, but about power.

To counter that, NO! presents a different kind of power — not power over, but power to. And here is where, for me, the film transcends its own fine documentary consciousness-changing genre and enters the realm of art.

The personal stories, told vulnerably and haltingly, the restrained use of music, the choice of color in backdrops, the lighting, the editing, the unsentimental use of poetry — even movement — is as risk-taking as confronting the subject itself.

And it works.

If I had my way, NO! would be required viewing in schools everywhere, shown to 6th grade classes or even younger students, with separate follow-up discussions for girls and for boys. If I had my way, it would be aired on TV networks, uncut, every day during Rape Awareness Month. If I had my way, it would have garnered an Oscar.

But the best I can do — besides buying copies of the DVD for friends and recommending it in my books and speeches — is to “curate” it for my friends and sisters at DOXA.

The State of Things | WUNC Public Radio | 91.5FM

Most cases of rape and sexual assault never make the news. But in recent weeks, horrific stories about victims of sexual violence have created national headlines. Some language used in the reporting of these cases and public reactions to them has caused controversy. How we articulate ideas about rape sheds light on American perceptions of violence, gender and race. On Wednesday, April 6, 2011, Host Frank Stasio discussed the language and the law surrounding rape with a panel of guests including documentary filmmaker (NO! The Rape Documentary)?Aishah Shahidah Simmons; Mark Anthony Neal, a professor of African and African-American Studies at Duke University; Melissa Harris-Perry, associate professor of politics and African-American Studies at Princeton University; and Mary R. Block, associate professor of history at Valdosta State University.

Ford Foundation’s JustFilms Collection

In February 2011, the Ford Foundation launched JustFilms, which is both a new initiative; and new online archive of social justice films that Ford has supported over the past 30 years. NO! The Rape Documentary is included in this prestigious collection, which represents the Foundation’s “commitment to groundbreaking documentaries that inform, inspire and advance change.”

The goal of the archive and new initiative is “to advance social justice worldwide through the talent of emerging and established filmmakers.”

I was raised Sufi Muslim and I practice Vipassana Meditation as taught by S.N. Goenka in the tradition of Sayagi U Ba Khin. My most recent ancestral maternal and paternal roots, however, are grounded in the Baptist and African Methodist Episcopalian (AME) Churches. Through my journey called life, I have witnessed and experienced the universality of the Ultimate Truth. As a result, I embrace all spiritual and religious traditions that teach and practice the Ultimate Truth.

I have been fortunate with countless opportunities to attend and present at numerous amazing and life changing conferences throughout the United States and internationally in Europe, Africa, and Asia. For the first time, however, I was invited by a Church to share the literal and metaphorical sacred space with Rev. Dr. Katie Geneva Cannon, who as the first African American woman ordained by the Presbyterian Church, is a ground breaker, mapmaker, trailblazer who has paved the way for so many womanist/feminist Religious Scholars, Ethicists and Theologians globally; and my Sister Survivor Rev. Dr. Monica A. Coleman whose visionary text The Dinah Project: A Handbook for Congregational Response to Sexual Violence, is being used at churches, colleges, seminaries, universities, throughout the United States.

This conference was the embodiment of Rev. Dwylene Butler’s Master’s Thesis “Holistic Hurt, Wholistic Healing: The Dance of Redemption for Survivors of Sexual Violence,” which she developed and wrote under the guidance of Rev. Dr. Cannon, who was her advisor at Union Theological Seminary in Richmond. In 2008, when Rev. Butler shared her Thesis with Pastor Tyrone Nelson, he asked Rev. Butler to host a conference so that their church could break its silence about rape and other violations of women.

In less than 14-months, an entire weekend, which included a performance of “The Heart of the Matter: A Journey Toward Healing” Monologues,” followed by a discussion facilitated by Rev. Patricia Jones-Turner; a screening and discussion of NO! The Rape Documentary, an interactive healing talk/presentation, led by Rev. Dr. Monica Coleman, on The Dinah Project, eight workshops facilitated by clergy, rape crisis counselors, cultural workers, scholars, and activists from which participants were able to attend three, The Dance of Redemption- Mimes, Liturgical and Praise Dancers from Richmond and surrounding areas gathered to minister in movement to songs of healing, strength, deliverance, and redemption; the entire conference concluded with the morning worship, where Dr. Katie Cannon as the guest preacher gave a powerful sermon titled “Project For A New Day.”

Women and Men were active participants with the organization of this conference, which, from my point of view, ran seamlessly… There wasn’t a division of labor based on the traditional gendered norms. That is to say, that Men played an active role in providing childcare and helping with the preparation of the food. Women played an active and visible leadership role throughout the weekend.

During Sunday morning’s worship service, the liturgy was taken from Sister Rev. Dr. Monica Coleman’s powerful “Dinah Project.” Statistics about rape, domestic violence, and other forms of violence against women and children we talked about from the pulpit during worship service on Sunday morning. Pastor Nelson invited both Sister Rev. Dr. Monica and I to offer some additional words about our work from the Pulpit during Sunday morning’s worship service. We both spoke to the entire congregation about our healing work from the perspective of survivors of sexual violence.

Equally if not more important Pastor Nelson declared a commitment, from the pulpit, on the part of Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church to be an active participant of the movement, in Richmond, VA, to addressing all forms of violence perpetuated against women and children. He stressed that the work had just begun at Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church with the conference while being explicitly clear that this work would be an ongoing effort. This would not be something that only happened once a year at an annual conference but a consistent effort because violence against women doesn’t only happen in October during Domestic Violence Awareness Month and April during Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

The Holistic Hurt, Wholistic Healing: The Church’s Call to Silence Sexual Violence was truly an inter-generational conference where people who participated and attended ranged in age from teenagers to over 70-years of age. What was especially powerful for me is that the visionaries for this conference Rev. Butler and Pastor Nelson are both several years under 40-years old. This is very important to note because the ongoing lack of respect for the visions of leaders/visionaries who happen to be young adults is still very pervasive in this country in all communities regardless of race/culture/ethnicity. And yet, I would argue that it is precisely because of Rev. Butler’s and Pastor Nelson’s ages, in this moment and at this time, that they had the vision for this conference. I want to be clear that the conference was made possible through a collaborative effort of many who are very diverse in age. In fact, it was Sister Rev. Dr. Katie Cannon who strongly encouraged Rev. Butler and Pastor Nelson to invite Monica and I to present at their conference. So, this is not about not honoring/paying homage to those who are our elders. It is solely about recognizing that vision/knowledge/wisdom isn’t solely based on one’s age.

It’s very important to underscore that this entire conference was FREE. This included free day care and free food for everyone. Everyone was welcomed and no one was turned away.

The main plenary sessions were videotaped. The workshops/small group sessions were not recorded out of respect for people’s privacy/confidentiality. If/when those sessions that were recorded are made available to the public, I will most definitely spread the word.

To say that I was moved the entire weekend by what I witnessed and experienced is a major understatement. The reality that most victim-survivors never go to a rape crisis center or seek therapy own their own. If they are religious, they tend to turn to their places of worship to try to find solace. Based on this, I believe it’s critical and should be non-negotiable that all leaders of religious institutions (Churches, Mosques, Synagogues, Temples) should take a very vocal and visible stance against all forms of sexual violence perpetuated against women, men and children. Then perhaps from there victim/survivors will not view going to a rape crisis center or seeking therapy as an “either/or” with regards to their spiritual/religious practice. It is a fact that victims take much longer to heal if they do not receive the proper support and tools that they need.

Through their demonstrated actions this past weekend and expressed commitment from October 18 forward, The Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church in Richmond, VA took a bold, courageous and necessary step in playing a direct role in ensuring that victims of sexual and domestic violence receive all of the help and support that they will need on their journey to becoming survivors.

I am grateful, honored, and humbled to have been both a witness and a participant.

While it took a village to make the conference a reality, I want to personally express my heartfelt gratitude to Rev. Dwylene Butler, Pastor Tyrone Nelson, Sister Regina Pettaway, Sister Lynne Lancaster for their direct, metaphorical hands on support of my and NO!’s presence at the conference.

While NO! The Rape Documentary has definitely been purchased by and used as an educational healing tool in Churches and Mosques across the United States and internationally, this conference is the FIRST time that Aishah Shahidah Simmons has ever been invited by a church or mosque to both present NO! and engage in dialogue about the critical role that religious institutions must play in addressing and ultimately ending sexual violence. She is both honored and humbled that Rev. Tyrone Nelson, Pastor, and Rev. Dwylene Butler, Church Business Administrator, invited her to present with Drs. Cannon and Coleman; and to participate in what she believes will be powerful, soul stirring, and healing weekend.

“October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. October 16-18, we invite you to Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church for a life changing conference. Join pastors, ministers, Women’s Ministry leaders, Youth leaders, college students and others in this conference exposing the prevalence of sexual violence in our communities and what we can do to silence sexual violence.”

Aishah Shahidah Simmons was the featured guest on the September 26, 2009 edition of Saturday Mornings with Joy Keys, which is featured on Blog Talk Radio. In 30 commercial free minutes, Keys and Simmons covered the waterfront on the sobering reality of rape, other forms of sexual violence in African-American communities. Keys and Simmons engaged in a very lively and passionate conversation about these often difficult and taboo issues while offering solutions on how to heal from the trauma and equally as important on how to stop it. Click here to listen to the program in its entirety.

]]>http://notherapedocumentary.org/aishah-shahidah-simmons-on-saturday-mornings-with-joy-keys/feed0http://notherapedocumentary.org/aishah-shahidah-simmons-on-saturday-mornings-with-joy-keysNO! in Open Frame Film Festival in New Delhihttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NoTheRapeDocumentary/~3/oMrr82efU7Y/no-in-open-fram-film-festival-in-new-delhi
http://notherapedocumentary.org/no-in-open-fram-film-festival-in-new-delhi#commentsSat, 26 Sep 2009 20:44:42 +0000adminhttp://notherapedocumentary.org/?p=216NO! -One of 50 Documentaries Selected in New Delhi, India

NO! The Rape Documentary was among the invited 50 documentary and short feature films from 22 countries, which were featured in the Open Frame Film Festival, which is organized by the Public Service Broadcasting Trust (PBST) in New Delhi India. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend the festival but was there in spirit through NO!. This is the second international film festival in India where NO! was featured. In 2008, NO! received the Best Documentary Award at the India International Women’s Film Festival.

NO! is a critical tool for all public health educators and practitioners concerned with women’s health. The medical and public health consequences of trauma related to sexual violence are profound and alarming. Moreover, there is a connection between trauma and HIV which makes this film particularly important for HIV prevention work. I highly recommend it to medical professional and public health professionals examining this intersection.

“Did I ever tell you how utterly superb I found NO! The Rape Documentary? My god, it’s not only a doco, it’s a work of art. Truly devastating. Yet hopeful. Even beautiful. And deadly. Thank you for having the guts and vision to have seen it through. It really is one helluva remarkable work.”

Robin Morgan, is an award-winning poet, novelist, political theorist, feminist activist, journalist, editor, and best-selling author. A former editor-in chief of Ms. magazine, she is founder of The Sisterhood is Global Institute and, most recently, a co-founder and Board Member of the Women’s Media Center.

]]>http://notherapedocumentary.org/robin-morgan-no-the-rape-documentary-testimonial/feed0http://notherapedocumentary.org/robin-morgan-no-the-rape-documentary-testimonialHarriet Hirshorn | NO! The Rape Documentary | Media Activismhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NoTheRapeDocumentary/~3/2DBmfoyEQWE/harriet-hirshorn-no-the-rape-documentary-media-activism
http://notherapedocumentary.org/harriet-hirshorn-no-the-rape-documentary-media-activism#commentsWed, 08 Oct 2008 16:26:11 +0000adminhttp://notherapedocumentary.org/?p=142“I am still thinking about your film, which was really interesting, beautiful, brave, inspiring, truly activist media, truly media activism… I think this is the first time in my life that I can actually glimpse the possibility that rape is something that could be stopped. I also think you have found a brilliant way to organize.”

NO! is one of the most powerful documentaries of our time. Finally an uncompromising film that speaks the truths of African-American women’s lives. Aishah is a pioneer and visionary and I was proud to be a part of this documentary that is affecting and will continue to affect women around the world. The physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual significance on the consciousness of African-American women and anyone who dares to look at this film is undeniable. I am delighted that Aishah birhted this documentary out of her womb spirit despite the labor pains it took to give birth to it. I applaud you for your perserverence and hard work to produce a torch for the next generation of girls and women. Aishah as a revolutionary I salute you and as my sister I bless you. Thanks for allowing me to be a part of this groundbreaking work and giving me a platform to share my story with others. If you are interested in human rights and the advancement of humanity you must see this film!

]]>http://notherapedocumentary.org/rev-reanae-mcneal-no-the-rape-documentary-testimonial/feed0http://notherapedocumentary.org/rev-reanae-mcneal-no-the-rape-documentary-testimonialMaristela Duarte Smith | Healing Black Communities | Sexual Violence Preventionhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NoTheRapeDocumentary/~3/pfxRTDW3CG0/maristela-duarte-smith-healing-black-communities-sexual-violence-prevention
http://notherapedocumentary.org/maristela-duarte-smith-healing-black-communities-sexual-violence-prevention#commentsTue, 16 Sep 2008 22:40:02 +0000adminhttp://notherapedocumentary.org/?p=130NO! is a must see! It addresses the issue of intra-racial rape with depth and elegance. The discussion is enriched with the testimonial of several intellectuals and activists within the Black movement, who courageously, expose us to the terrifying reality of trauma and the possibility of transforming suffering into a tool against oppression.

NO! challenges the viewer to reflect about a reality that, although obscure for some, continues to affect several women in our communities.

Besides, NO! is a healing tool that helps all of us in the Americas and beyond become whole by integrating feelings of guilt or shame that may have been buried for a while. It is a jewel that must be watched, discussed and appreciated by all.

I am so grateful that a Black woman made it a priority to tell the truth, loud and clear, about the sexual violence we experience. Aishah Shahidah Simmons should be recognized as a hero by all Black people, because her film was a labor of love that can be the catalyst we need to start healing our entire community–women and men, girls and boys. No more shame or fear! Thank you, Aishah! Lori Robinson Author, “I Will Survive: The African-American Guide To Healing from Sexual Assault”

The 17th Internation AIDS Conference is taking place in Mexico City on August 3rd to August 8th. Bringing together scholars, activists, organizers, and policy makers from around the world, the conference’s aim and focus is the following according to it’s publicity on the site:

“AIDS 2008 will provide many opportunities for the presentation of important new scientific research and for productive, structured dialogue on the major challenges facing the global response to AIDS. Conference organizers are developing a wide variety of session types that meet the needs of various participants and support collective efforts to expand delivery of HIV prevention and treatment to communities worldwide. Central to many of these sessions will be the transfer of knowledge and sharing of best practices.

In addition to the conference sessions there are a number of activities, including satellite meetings, exhibitions, the Global Village and the Cultural Programme, that are integral to delegates’ experience at the conference.

NO! will be screened on Wednesday, August 6th at 4pm. Although we will not be present, we will certainly be there in spirit and look forward to hearing about the conference from our friends and allies who will be present. The links between violence against women and the AIDS epidemic are clear. We hope that the conference continues the work of bringing these links to the forefront of everyone’s attention.

I’m proud to announce NO! will be screened on

]]>http://notherapedocumentary.org/no-to-be-featured-during-mexico-international-aids-conference/feed0http://notherapedocumentary.org/no-to-be-featured-during-mexico-international-aids-conferenceStatement of Black Men Against the Exploitation of Black Womenhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NoTheRapeDocumentary/~3/Cxn-ff4kwik/statement-of-black-men-against-the-exploitation-of-black-women
http://notherapedocumentary.org/statement-of-black-men-against-the-exploitation-of-black-women#commentsWed, 18 Jun 2008 01:28:19 +0000adminhttp://notherapedocumentary.org/?p=100

Six years have gone by since we first heard the allegations that R. Kelly had filmed himself having sex with an underage girl. During that time we have seen the videotape being hawked on street corners in Black communities, as if the dehumanization of one of our own was not at stake. We have seen entertainers rally around him and watched his career reach new heights despite the grave possibility that he had molested and urinated on a 13-year old girl. We saw African Americans purchase millions of his records despite the long history of such charges swirling around the singer. Worst of all, we have witnessed the sad vision of Black people cheering his acquittal with a fervor usually reserved for community heroes and shaken our heads at the stunning lack of outrage over the verdict in the broader Black community.

Over these years, justice has been delayed and it has been denied. Perhaps a jury can accept R. Kelly’s absurd defense and find “reasonable doubt” despite the fact that the film was shot in his home and featured a man who was identical to him. Perhaps they doubted that the young woman in the courtroom was, in fact, the same person featured in the ten year old video. But there is no doubt about this: some young Black woman was filmed being degraded and exploited by a much older Black man, some daughter of our community was left unprotected, and somewhere another Black woman is being molested, abused or raped and our callous handling of this case will make it that much more difficult for her to come forward and be believed. And each of us is responsible for it.

We have proudly seen the community take to the streets in defense of Black men who have been the victims of police violence or racist attacks, but that righteous outrage only highlights the silence surrounding this verdict.

We believe that our judgment has been clouded by celebrity-worship; we believe that we are a community in crisis and that our addiction to sexism has reached such an extreme that many of us cannot even recognize child molestation when we see it.

We recognize the absolute necessity for Black men to speak in a single, unified voice and state something that should be absolutely obvious: that the women of our community are full human beings, that we cannot and will not tolerate the poisonous hatred of women that has already damaged our families, relationships and culture.

We believe that our daughters are precious and they deserve our protection. We believe that Black men must take responsibility for our contributions to this terrible state of affairs and make an effort to change our lives and our communities.

This is about more than R. Kelly’s claims to innocence. *It is about our survival as a community*. Until we believe that our daughters, sisters, mothers, wives and friends are worthy of justice, until we believe that rape, domestic violence and the casual sexism that permeates our culture are absolutely unacceptable, until we recognize that the first priority of any community is the protection of its young, we will remain in this tragic dead-end.

We ask that you:

o Forward this statement to your entire network and ask other Black males to sign as well

o Make a personal pledge to never support R. Kelly again in any form or fashion, unless he publicly apologizes for his behavior and gets help for his long-standing sexual conduct, in his private life and in his music

o Make a commitment in your own life to never to hit, beat, molest, rape, or exploit Black females in any way and, if you have, to take ownership for your behavior, seek emotional and spiritual help, and, over time, become a voice against all forms of Black female exploitation

o Challenge other Black males, no matter their age, class or educational background, or status in life, if they engage in behavior and language that is exploitative and or disrespectful to Black females in any way. If you say nothing, you become just as guilty.

o Learn to listen to the voices, concerns, needs, criticisms, and challenges of Black females, because they are our equals, and because in listening we will learn a new and different kind of Black manhood.

We support the work of scholars, activists and organizations that are helping to redefine Black manhood in healthy ways. Additional resources are listed below.

Books:
Who’s Gonna Take the Weight, Kevin Powell
New Black Man, Mark Anthony Neal
Deals with the Devil and Other Reasons to Riot, Pearl Cleage
Traps: African American Men on Gender and Sexuality, Rudolph Byrd and Beverly Guy-Sheftall

NO! The Rape Documentary unveils the reality of rape, other forms of sexual violence, and healing in Black communities. Through the testimonies of the featured women survivors, Violence prevention advocates, theologians, sociologists, historians, anthropologists, and other leading scholars and human rights activists NO! is a rape prevention tool.

“NO! is a MUST SEE for any of us who are concerned about raising happy, healthy Black families and ultimately fucntional Black communities.” — Dr. Denese Shervington

Denese Shervington, M.D., MPH, a Professor of Clinical Psychiatry of Columbia University Medial Center, who divides her time between Columbia’s HIV Center in New York and The Institute for Women and Ethnic Studies, the New Orleans based-non profit organization, which she co-founded in 1990, where she is presently developing a post-Katrina mental health recovery division. Dr. Shervington had the opportunity to view NO! and participate in the dialogue following the screening, at a New Orleans community-based screening, sponsored by the Ashe Cultural Arts Center, during Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

College campus rape survivors share their stories in NO! The Rape Documentary and Breaking Silences: The Supplemental Video to NO!. Both of these works, which compliment each other, feature riveting testimonies of women who experienced rape, other forms of sexual violence, and/or battering in college and university settings both in the United States and on a Study Abroad program. Their testimonies are supported by men and women activists, scholars, theologians, and cultural workers who work towards ending all forms of violence against women.

“This is such a taboo issue to talk about it. Not only for the African-American community, but for White communities, Asian Communities…all communities.” — Tonya Schmidt

Following a screening and discussion, facilitated by Aishah Shahidah Simmons and Monica Dillon, with college administrators and students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Tonya Schmidt from the Office of Dean of Students, said “‘NO!’ was entirely empowering” and she encouraged all college students and any administrators or staff that work with college students to view NO! The Rape Documentary.

If you’re intersted in bringing producer, writer, and director Aishah Shahidah Simmons to present NO! or Breaking Silences and facilitate dialogue or a workshop with the students at your campus or university, please click here.

Together we can raise awareness and works towards ending rape, sexual assault and other forms of violence against women and children.

“Aishah Shahidah Simmons and I met over ten years ago in Washington, DC when she was dating an old friend. We spent a Saturday night with friends dancing at the Hung Jury and talking about our future goals. I remember thinking that she was intensely passionate and I followed her career. I had not seen Aishah since that fun night until I ran into her this past fall when she attended the event to celebrate Katherine Acey’s 20th Anniversary with the Astraea Foundation. I knew that I wanted to talk with Aishah about her work and journey to becoming an award-winning independent documentary filmmaker, television and radio producer, published writer, international lecturer, and activist living in Philadelphia…

What is your passion?

My passion is centralizing the margins of society. Making the invisible, visible. Documenting the lives of women of color globally. I am an activist. The camera lens is my medium to make social change irresistible.

What motivates you to do your work? What do you hope to accomplish by doing this work?

Injustice in the world motivates me. Injustice fuels my passion to make change. Anytime when I feel that I can’t do it, there is an issue that I feel needs to be addressed. An issue very dear to my heart is violence against WOMEN.

I am survivor of violence. It is personal. I know more women here in the United States and abroad who have been impacted by violence than those who have not. Whether it was being the victim of violence or witnessing domestic violence and other forms of violence. It has impacted so many women…

]]>http://notherapedocumentary.org/passion-life-magazine-no-the-rape-documentary/feed0http://notherapedocumentary.org/passion-life-magazine-no-the-rape-documentaryNancy Schwartzman | NO! The Rape Documentary Testimonialhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NoTheRapeDocumentary/~3/6vS4SEKdGfg/nancy-schwartzman-no-the-rape-documentary-testimonial
http://notherapedocumentary.org/nancy-schwartzman-no-the-rape-documentary-testimonial#commentsThu, 12 Jun 2008 01:17:47 +0000adminhttp://notherapedocumentary.org/?p=96“‘NO!’ continues to inspire me along my filmmaking journey. The courageous women and men who come forward and share their stories are treated with respect in the film, thus enabling their experiences to resonate powerfully and universally. Aishah has paved the way for filmmakers who want to make a change and confront their communities in a positive way.“

While NO! predominantly focuese on rape and sexual assault, half of the featured rape survivor stories talk about being physically battered by their perpetrators who were their intimate partners and friends. NO! makes the link between domestic violence and sexual violence.

“I really loved this film!” — Jennifer Young

In her video testimonial, Jennifer Young of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, talks about how “incredibly powerful” NO! was and that (Aishah Shahidah Simmons and Monica Dillon) were “phenomenal” in talking about the intersections of classism, racism, sexism, homophobia, and other forms of oppression on any college campus or organization in the world. Ms. Young was also deeply impacted by the discussions, in NO!, about the direct ole of religion in violence against women in communities of color and hopes that NO! will provide a space for all women and men to tackle the issues of ending domestic violence, rape and other forms of sexual violence against women.

If you’re intersted in bringing producer, writer, and director Aishah Shahidah Simmons to present NO! and Breaking Silences; and facilitate dialogue or a workshop with the students at your campus or university, please click here.

Together we can raise awareness and works towards ending rape, sexual assault and other forms of violence against women and children.